Snæfellsjökull glacier summit hike - summer 2019

Описание: Music - Norupo - Heilung

When I looked at Snafesjokull glacier the day before this video was recorded,
I promised myself to at least go for a hike and try to get as close to the summit as possible,
but only when weather conditions are good enough. A couple of days earlier, we were warned by the guide, who was teaching us basic techniques of Ice climbing on Skaftafel glacier, that at this time of a year it might be impossible to get to the Snafesjokull summit, due to a large number of crevasses on the glacier.

When I woke up on the day of our hike, weather conditions were bad. A thick layer of clouds
was covering all mountain tops, but because we had plenty of time,
I asked Marta if she wants to go for a hike on the bottom flat sections of the glacier.
She agreed to give it a go, but I didn't mention anything else to keep her calm.

When we arrived at the base of the mountain, the fog was limiting visibility significantly,
so my expectations were quite low at this point. This day, however, the Gods decided to be merciful for us! When we were a one-third way to the top, the weather started to change rapidly, and this was one of the most beautiful spectacles I've seen in my life.
When the top of the mountain became visible for the first time, I somehow knew that there was a chance to climb it. The higher we were, the weather was getting better and better.
Once we reached the flat top section of a glacier, it was time for one final climb. I have to admit, that this was a stressful experience for me. I never did anything like this before, and I simply couldn't trust this soft snow underneath my feet. To this day, I still don't know if all of this was rather safe or maybe a little bit dangerous. The last section wasn't technically challenging, for me it was rather easy, but not very pleasant. Of course, when we reached the Summit, the view from it was spectacular, but only Marta fully enjoyed these moments and stayed calm all of the time. On the way down we haven't experienced any difficulties. From the place when our car was parked it took about 5 hours to get to the top and return, with maybe 30 minutes brake for drone filming and a cup of tea.

I never go to the mountains with the intention of making videos. This wasn't the purpose of this hike. Almost all footage from my ancient GoPro hero 3+ camera was recorded from the chest mount for safety reasons, and all of the aerial shots were captured with a little DJI Mavic Air drone, which is my favourite addition to all of the expeditions, due to its low weight and small size.

I wouldn't recommend this kind of a hike to anyone without a basic understanding of climbing in the winter weather conditions and some previous experience.

I hope you'll enjoy this video.