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Beautiful assisted 4 day hut to hut walking adventure along the north and south flank of Mount Hekla, one of Iceland's best known volcano and through the Fjallabak Natural Reserve to Landmannalaugar.
This concentrated itinerary is part of our collection of trips that speak to purist hikers with a spirit of adventure. This year, we are offering several departures for a maximum number of 12 participants. The volcano Mount Hekla and the magic that revolves around its reputation, which goes well beyond Iceland's shores, has always fascinated man. Considered during the Middle Ages as an access to hell, Ancient Rome in it's day advised fishermen to see for themselves what lay beyond if they ventured as far. The volcano's eruptions often ruined the countryside and were the source of worry for the Icelandic people, who feared and revered the volcano at the same time. But what was feared the most was that an eruption from one of the faces of the volcano would ruin its perfect shape.
This beautiful strato-volcano (a volcanic edifice built over centuries through a series of volcanic eruptions) is still active and closely monitored by the volcanologists' seismographs. We hike along the volcano from a reasonably safe distance in order to maintain safety and we stay informed about the relative volcanic activity.
The metaphor “Black raven reefs” is a perfect example of the natural poetry of the old Icelandic language. (Hrafntinnusker: Hrafn for raven, Tinna for black and Sker for reefs)
This describes a chaos of obsidian, an intense black razor sharp vitrified lava, which spreads among soft colored hills in the center of a vast caldera of the same name: Hrafntinnusker. large loops to explore the incredible caldera. More obvious are the amazing rhyolite mountains, formed in incredible bands of pink, brown, green, yellow, blue, purple, black, white, orange and red and glittering with innumerable black, glass-like obsidian lava… Walking among countless bubbling, steaming hot springs, we cross this pearl of the interior, famous for its incredible natural beauty.
We will see preliminarily the innumerable solfatares with pools of mud, bubbles of powerful and noisy steam. On the edge of the caldera we advance on a platitude of black slag that leads to Mount Hekla which dominates the horizon close to its imposing and legendary mass.
With the exception of a lightweight day pack, all equipment and luggage is transported by a 4x4 support vehicle.
| TRIP DATES | AVAILABILITY | PRICE | SPACE LEFT | |
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Route 140 km – Walk 4-5 hours - approx.12 km (7,5 miles)– Altitude 150m > 200 m (500 ft. > 660 ft.)
Early morning rendezvous at 7:30 AM with your guide in Reykjavik meeting point. Hiking clothes, duffel bag and day pack ready for trekking.
(The meeting place will be communicated to you later. Luggage can be stored at the luggage storage of your accommodation in Reykjavik or at our warehouse in the countryside).
Departure towards the south-east via the villages of Hveragerði and Selfoss for 1h30 hours through the southern moors. Short stop at our warehouse in the village of Hella where we load the travel bags, food and equipment into the trailer of our support jeep.
Another 40 minutes’ drive to reach the vicinity of Mount Hekla.
The majestic volcano rises above a grassy plain and marks the entrance to the Southern Highlands. Probably It is Iceland’s most famous (or infamous!) and active volcano. Hike starts by late morning crossing grassland. The few little farms of the area have had to move many times over the centuries as eruptions have engulfed them. However, much of the countryside is now verdant with some former lava flows covered in green moss and arctic birch. Green moss, « bonsai » arctic birch grove along with the pure water springs, creates the feeling, perhaps, of a real Japanese garden.
(If you are already on the road, the meeting can take place at 9am at our warehouse in the village of Hella on the ring road Nr.1, 100 km southeast of Reykjavik. If you came from Europe by ferry with your own vehicle, you could keep it in our parking).
6-8-hour hike– approx. 20 km (12 miles) Altitude 200 m to 300 m (574 ft. to 1050 ft.)
We cross the river Ytri-Rangá (Western Rangá), then we hike the last series of hills made from palagonite rock (sub-glacially formed) that protects the last fragments of burned countryside. On the far side, we arrive onto a moon-like surface at the foot of Mount Hekla and cross a stretch of perfectly flat volcanic slag. The surrounding black is so dark that on overcast days one wonders if color ever existed there. Tiny, we are moving in a completely mineral world of infinite slag plain along the eastern flank of the volcano, which has been vomited most of the cast of the latest eruptions.
We walk away from “the Gateway to Hell” (as Hekla was known in the middle ages) and the landscape begins to soften; the green colors of the mosses slowly covering lava fields and the pumices that rain on the land with each eruption. Crossing the “pass of the lambs” we walk in the direction of the majestic monolithic crown of Mount Loðmundur, surrounded by marshland and rich pasture, reflecting in the beautiful lake Loðmundarvatn reflecting Mount Loðmundur a flat-topped volcanic monolith that erupted through glacial ice during the Ice Age. Landmannahellir has been for ages and it is still used now by the shepherds as a base when catching thousand sheep in fall after having been grassing free the whole summer. We are in a legendary place with thousand stories to tell.
6–8-hour hike – approx. 16 km (10 miles) – Alt. 500 m > 1000 m (1940 ft. >3280 ft.)
Progress through the shimmering colors of the rhyolitic massifs on the heights of Landmannalaugar. Incredible palette of pastel colors, from blue to pink, including all possible ochres. Countless fumaroles, pools of sulphureous mud, flows of vitrified obsidian, swamps, clear lakes and immaculate ice caps follow one another as far as the eye can see. We walk along a vast flow of obsidian Hrafntinnusker, “the reefs of raven black”.
Obsidian is a black vitrified lava with sometimes blue or green reflections, which when broken is sharp as a razor blade that spreads here on the soft pastel undulations of acid rocks of the crown of the caldera of the same name. We will carefully see the countless solfataras with pools of bubbling mud, powerful and noisy jets of steam
In late afternoon, by jeep we drive down to the lowland on the very beautiful track of Fjallabak South through the volcanic expanses of the southeast of Hekla then through the beautiful moors and meadows. We arrive in early evening at our base in the village of Hella
A 5-day option: (+39.000 Kr approx. +260 €) Possibility to stay one more night in the mountains and return in the morning of day 5. Return to Reykjavik by regular bus at the end of the morning (D: 11:20 a.m. > A: 12:40 p.m.) or by regular bus in the afternoon for the pier of the Vestmann Islands.
If you have chosen this option at registration, it is possible that depending on the circumstances we may be forced to cancel it. Of course, in this eventuality we will notify you well in advance so that you can organize your accommodation in Reykjavik or in Hella and we will refund you the price of this option.
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