Skip to content
The Life List

Nature

Walk on a glacier in crampons

Meltwater moves under Vatnajökull in channels you can hear but never see, a low gurgle beneath boots that only picked up their first pair of crampons an hour ago. The guide leads in a slow zigzag, prodding snow-bridged crevasses with an ice axe, because the ice underfoot is older than anyone on the tour and full of holes nobody has charted. Sturdy waterproof boots are non-negotiable; trainers get you turned back at the meeting point. Three to five hours later you're back at the car park, soaked to the knee, having learned that glacier ice, seen up close, is the colour of a gas flame.

Practical

Cost
$100–170 per person
Best time
Year-round, though May–September gives easier access and longer light
Difficulty
Moderate
Time it takes
3–5 hours, including transfer and gear fitting
What people get wrong
People turn up in trainers or fashion boots and get refused at the meeting point; sturdy waterproof boots with ankle support are required, not optional. Others assume they can wander off the roped route to get a photo — hidden crevasses under snow bridges are exactly why guides insist on sticking to the tested path.
With
A group

Add to your list Already done it

Also this

  • Soak in the Blue Lagoon's milky blue water

    The steam hits you before the smell does, sulphur and wet rock, and then you're in it: water the colour of a Berocca tablet dissolving, made milky by silica that the volcanic run-off carries up from below.

    Best time:Year-round; winter adds snow and steam contrast, sometimes northern lights

  • Drive the Ring Road all the way around Iceland

    In February the sun clears the horizon around eleven and sinks again by four, so you drive most of the day through a long dusk, watching the tarmac for the sheen that means ice.

    Best time:June to August for daylight and easier driving; possible but harder in winter

  • Paddle through water that glows with every stroke

    The water at the dock is black, and the guide dips a paddle in first, watching for the glow before anyone launches.

    Best time:Moonless nights, any time of year

  • Spend a night alone in a fire lookout tower

    The stove is small enough to heat with one armful of wood, and by dusk the windows go dark orange with the sunset instead of black, because you are above the treeline on all four sides at once.

    Best time:Summer, when fire-season access roads and trails are clear

  • Sleep in a bothy

    The grid reference sits in pencil on a paper map, six digits leading to a stone hut with no chimney smoke.

    Best time:Late spring to early autumn; winter needs hillwalking experience

More in Nature.