Iceland: Day 14 - Snowscooter Adventure

July 8, 2004

Waiting for the jeeps to arrive at Smyrlabjórg to take us up to the edge of Skalafellsjökull, another Vatnajökull glacier tongue, we met a couple of British girls who had just finished the tour. We asked them how it was and their response was "Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!" We would quickly find out that they were right!

The tour guide was a fellow by the name of Bjarni, assisted by several other guides. We got into a jeep with 2 Swiss guides who were videotaping everything and a really annoying guy who had zero tact, was pushy, and dumb as a door nail (the guides quickly discovered how dumb he was when he got stuck on the first instruction for how to use a snowscooter... he was quickly relegated to the back of the pack with a guide to watch him especially, which didn't help much when about 100m before the end of the tour the guy tipped his snowscooter and not paying attention to instructions put out his leg. He ended up in an ambulance with a broken leg!)

The jeep ride up the mountain on the 19km gravel track was amazing in itself. Watched the little gizmo on the dashboard that indicated the pitch and roll of the jeep and felt sorry for the Virginian woman who's husband was driving a borrowed jeep up the mountain himself with his family as passengers. This was not easy driving!

At the top we had the option to stay in jeeps or to switch to snowscooters. Everyone got suited up at the lodge and chose the snowscooters (a sweet fleet of Bombardier snowmobiles). After some basic instructions and a cautionary note to follow the guide's trail so as not to fall into any gaps or chasms, we were off.

When we stopped at the top we had a magnificent view of Iceland's highest mountain, Hvannadalshnúkur (2119 m), projecting 300 m above the Öræfajökull, a glacier tongue on the southern side of Vatnajökull. Under Öræfajökull is a central vocano with a caldera 12 km in area, from which the glacier creeps down to the lowlands. The volcano is active and has erupted twice in historical times, in 1362 and 1727. When it erupted in 1362 it produced the greatest tephra fall in recorded history in Iceland. As a result, Litla Hérað (the Little District) was temporarily completely aboandoned, after which the area was given the name Öræfi, meaning "wasteland".

The day was absolutely beautiful... warm, sunny, clear, and without wind. We asked the guides if they get many days like this and they said they only get about 5 days like this per year... if they're lucky! You could tell, cause the guides were also in high spirits and performed a few snowscooter tricks and started a little snowball fight with some of the kids.

Thanks again to all our sponsors from Canadian Heritage... brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

We stopped shortly on the way up to the glacier to check out a mountain lake.

The mountain was steep and the roads were rough... thankfully it was a nice day!

Rubby checks out the fleet of Bombardier snowmobiles - "snowscooters"

We stay single file so as not to fall into any cracks in the glacier.

Wow, this is fun!

It feels like we're on top of the world!

Enjoying the warm sunny weather on this field of snow.

A view of Öræfajökull and Iceland's highest mountain, Hvannadalshnúkur (2119 m).

Rubby checks out the view only possible with the rare clear weather we got.

A snowball fight on top of the glacier.

Heading back down to the lodge at the edge of the glacier.

Everyone agreed it was a fabulous excursion...
except for maybe the annoying guy who ended the day in an ambulance!

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