Wednesday was probably the highlight of our trip. We set out in the morning to go ice climbing on Vatnajökull Glacier. We left early, and not surprising, nothing is open around here. Grocery stores don't open until 10 and the hotel wouldn't sell us individual breakfast items unless we wanted to pay $48 dollars each for the entire "buffet," which was minimal at best. So off we went, heading further east on the Ring Road. WE arrived, got situated, bought what turned out to be some super awesome fish sandwiches for lunch...thanks for grabbing the cinnamon rolls Deeter-they might have saved my life up on that glacier.
Emily and Gizly were our guides and we were there with three Taiwanese army gents and a couple from Brussels. We made the walk to the glacier, learned how to put on our crampons and were off!
Walking along this glacier was INCREDIBLE! By far one of the coolest things I have ever done because it is unlike any other environment I have ever seen. The ice was not slick at all-thank you crampons-and it had an amazing blue and almost purple hue to it. We walked up and were able to see moulans-where the water tunnels underneath the he glacier all the way to the bottom and crevasses.
We continued hiking until we were at this incredible ice fall region. Huge walls of ice towered above us and off Emily and Gizly went to set up the ice belaying ropes. We climbed in two different spots before being lowered into a huge crevasse and climbing out. Such an adrenaline rush and beautiful site to see down there-GREAT DAY!
We made the drive a bit further east to Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. Here, large chunks of the glacier float about and flow out into the Norwegian Sea. You can hear them hitting each other and the color of them are just incredible!
That night we stayed at our little dorm room type hotel and ate some more ramen noodles as that was all we really had at the grocery store as it was closing and there weren't so many "restaurants" available.