Time for my favorite portion of any trip to a mountainous country: hauling my pitiful flatlander legs up a mountain because it is “probably not that bad.”
Our end goal: witness the volcanic eruption at Geldingadalur.
The Geldingadalur volcano has been erupting since the end of March. Unlike the last time a volcano in Iceland erupted, it did not emit an ash plume that shut down European air travel for an unknown amount of time. Geldingadalur spews lava with regularity, and nobody knows how long it will erupt.
On our first day, we spoke with a fellow tourist at the Blue Lagoon, who said she had been to see the volcano the day before. She said the hike was “not that bad, just a little steep in one part” and encouraged us to go. Our take on that nice lady ranged from “not super fit so it’s probably fine” to “maybe a semi-pro.”
I decided to take Nice Lady (hereby referred to as “NL”) at her word. How bad could it be? NL did take some Very Good pictures of us. She seemed trustworthy.
The volcano was about an hour’s drive south of Reykjavik, near the Blue Lagoon (see above!). There were safety crews on-site from noon til midnight, so we planned for a post-lunch hike. The parking lots were filled with tourists and a few enterprising food trucks slinging hot dogs and what have you. The only fee is parking – roughly $10, which goes to lot and trail maintenance and safety.
I had been obsessively checking the weather before our departure – you want to make sure you don’t get slain by the toxic fumes from the volcano. Fortunately for us, we were forecast to be downwind of the volcano for our entire hike, and the cameras displayed excellent activity (perfect, because it had been mostly quiet the day before our hike).
As part of my research, I had been trying to find more information on what to expect about the trail. I was somewhat lazy and found a few old articles from March or April, before trails had been built. Most of the posts I had read had talked about how it had been relatively easy.
I DID check a topography map beforehand and note that from the parking lot to the summit of the lookout point, it was just shy of 1000 feet over a distance of about 2 miles. Lost in my desire to see a real live volcano, I decided to throw that data point out and carried on my merry way.
And besides, the website for visiting the volcano said that the climb should be “easy for most people.” Perhaps confusingly, it said to also not bring your children nor dogs (citing fumes for the dogs). So what is it, site? Easy for most people but don’t bring your kids? Are kids not people? (maybe?)
The path from the lot to the foot of the ridge was easy going and well-maintained. People had both their children and their dogs.
And then you get to the first ascent of the ridge.
The part that NL said was “a little steep” was A LOT STEEP. We’re talking basically vertical, slippery ascent, with some switchbacky path and some little rocks, worn away by the thousands of people come to pay homage to the eruption before us.
You really had to channel your inner goat (or Nice Lady of a mysterious level of fitness) as you were going straight up that ridge. No rope, just some slippy rocks and dust, and other tourists beneath you to crush your fall, should natural selection take its course and you plummet straight down the side of the mountain. Surely with all those parking fees, they could put some safety handhold ropes up this bit. Right?
But where was the fun in visiting a volcano if the path to it was safe and easy?!
We passed people who were holding their kids’ hands and going down the slope as we pathetically snaked our way up the ridge. One dad was laughing as he slipped down the trail with his kid. Was this his least favorite kid? Did he like staring death in the face so brazenly, cackling maniacally and presenting death with his offspring?
I have no idea, but I can only assume he was German.
I don’t have a picture that does the “little steep” slope justice….It vaguely reminded me of the time I chose to walk straight up a similar cliff in costa rica in my flip flops – but at least that time, there were roots to grab. There was nothing here but rocks and death.
Well look, I didn’t come all the way here to see the lava flow at the bottom, nor to be outdone by some precocious Icelandic five-year-old, so I proceeded straight up the ridge, seeking out stable rocks to step on as I went (haha, good joke). At the very least, I could make my new home at the top with the volcano and never leave (or die there, if the wind switched directions).
In NL’s defense, after the “little steep” part, it wasn’t too bad – it was way less treacherous. Yes, it was still up many meters, but in a sort of gentle, rolling way. The path had big rocks on it for stability and was less slippery. A stiff breeze blew off the sea to the south which helped me not overheat in the broiling hot Icelandic summer (it was a whole 60 degrees).
The volcano was of course the main draw, but the view over the valley and the lava flow was quite scenic, too.
We hung out at the summit (next to the cell reception tower) and watched to volcano do its thing. You can continue on from this point, but it was the end of the official path and we didn’t have it in our hearts to carry on an extra 2-3 km to the next peak.
Here’s Rhett’s favorite volcano shot I took.
And I like the burstiness of this one:
The way down was mostly fine, except for the death cliff, which we went down sideways and off the path so we could have foothold rocks. There were children and elderly climbing this thing. Surely I could do it without dying.
And I did! And there were more children and families going up! And they were GIGGLING.
Iceland is madness.
We took a small detour at the bottom to check out the lava. You can still see heat rippling off it in the distance, and the site is very explicit about not walking on the hardened lava since it’s quite brittle and 1000 degree magma can be waiting for you underneath.
Fun fact, since lava is dense, you won’t sink into it, you’ll just burn to death on top! Thanks D&D research for teaching me this fact. I have now passed it on to all of you.
At the end of our scramble up the ridge, we decided it was an appropriate amount of hilly murder required to visit a volcano, and took our dusty selves back to Reykjavik. I checked the volcano livestream when we got back to the car and saw that it had returned to a relatively peaceful period, with no magma spilling out of the crater. We were just in time!
You can find a complete guide (with excellent drone photography, volcano facts, and several live camera feeds) on the Guide to Iceland site.