Reykjavík Grapevine - feb. 2022, Blaðsíða 30

You’ll probably never need to consider
quite how heavy a snowmobile is until
you roll one over on a glacier, and have
to right it yourself. (About 240kg, since
you ask.)
My “incident” happened at a snail’s
pace as I—a complete newbie to driv-
ing one of these powerful beasts—
tried to make a tight turn on a slight
incline, and failed to lean upslope as
I had been instructed by glacier guide
Stefán. The beast toppled, slowly and
elegantly, and I simply hopped off it
unharmed.
My biggest concern was that
my Grapevine colleagues, who had
stopped a few hundred metres behind,
had spotted my faux pas. They had, of
course, and Stefán had clearly seen this
kind of customer clumsiness before,
too. As he rode back to check in with
me and continue leading our group
across the Langjökull glacier, he put
my ham-fisted handling to shame by
deliberately leaning his own beast over
on one ski: the snowmobile equivalent
of pulling a wheelie. Show off.
Into the white
Our destination was the Amaz-
ing Crystal Ice Cave, a huge chasm
that appeared on the east side of the
glacier last year. It was discovered
last September by Stefán and a cave-
hunting team put together by Amazing
Tours and Sleipnir Tours, who scour
Langjökull every autumn for these
naturally-forming wonders. Jón Kris-
tinn Jónsson, boss of Amazing Tours
and a glacier professional with decades
of experience, says that—with the
main chamber at about 12m high and
10m wide—it’s the biggest ice cave he
has ever seen.
To check it out, Team Grapevine
drove the two hours from Reykjavík
to the Amazing Tours base at Skjól,
just south of the glacier. There we
transferred to Sleipnir’s impressive
monster bus—a vehicle equipped with
eight giant wheels to roll effortlessly
over crevasses that would swallow
anything smaller— for a comfortable
30km ride to the glacier camp.
On arrival we donned fluores-
cent overalls and motorbike helmets,
received a briefing on how to handle
our snowmobiles and were led off by
Stefán, camel-train style. And that’s
where the hard work began. Driving
a snowmobile is great fun, but they
don’t come with power steering and
the 12km ride to the cave became
something of an upper-body work-
out. But the landscape took my mind
off the exertion, and my breath away.
The white-on-white of fresh snow on
glacial ice created a surreal mono-
chrome vista, punctuated only by the
colourful overalls of my fellow travel-
lers and the bright red of their vehi-
cles.
Inside the ice
After 30 minutes we parked the
snowmobiles, pulled on the cram-
pons provided and started the short
h i k e t h o u g h
metre-deep snow.
Although beauti-
ful , the freshly
fallen powder made
the going tough,
and I was glad to
stop every once in
a while to admire
the cascading ice
spikes of small
frozen water flows.
The cave entrance
was marked by a
whirring genera-
tor to power the
lights inside and,
as I descended the
roughly-hewn ice
steps, the majesty
of the space below became apparent.
Nature has sculpted a stunning
cathedral of ice within the glacier. The
frozen water extends above, below and
all around, reflecting and refracting
the floodlights and revealing a multi-
tude of hues of blue. It’s surprisingly
warm inside the cave. The temperature
hovers steadily near freezing regard-
less of the outside temperature, and
after the journey’s exertions in windy
sub-zero temperatures I needed to
shed some layers once inside.
Private tours are carefully sched-
uled between the larger groups, allow-
ing for a more relaxed time within
the cave. We spent more than an hour
there, as did one adventurous Ameri-
can couple who used the opportunity
to get married—wedding dress, tuxedo
and all—in the most
stunning ecclesias-
tical space you can
imagine that isn’t
actually a church.
Going deep
T h e c a v e h a s a
balcony from which
you can view its full
extent, but the best
experience is to be
had by climbing
to the lower level.
There are ropes
installed in the ice
wall , and expert
guides who position
themselves under
you and tell you where to put your feet
as you go up or down. However, this
activity is not for the faint-hearted, nor
anyone with mobility issues. It’s also
not something that you can assume
will be included in a tour; the guides on
site will assess the suitability of lower-
level access for each individual.
After a tricky climb down the ice
wall I carefully traversed the sloping
lower floor, where glacial water flowed
to make the slippery surface just that
little bit more hazardous. Then another
strenuous, sweaty ice wall climb back
up took me to a platform where nature
had thoughtfully sculpted some seats
of solid ice, offering rest to those who
have made the effort.
Eventually, as we slowly crossed the
lower floor again to leave the cave, I
stopped and gazed up into the glint-
ing ceiling of translucent whites and
blues. I was in awe of this incredible
natural phenomenon, and relieved
that I had managed the trip without
once slipping and falling on my arse.
Even if I had rolled a snowmobile.
Tour duration from
Reykjavík:
12 hours
Car provided by:
gocarrental.is
Tour provided by:
amazingtours.is
Cathedral Of Ice
Lan! jökull’s newest natural !lacial cave
Words & Photos: John Pearson
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In the shadows of giants Joyfully trudging onwards
Travel
“The frozen water
extends above,
below and all
around, reflecting
and refracting the
floodlights and
revealing a multi-
tude of hues of
blue.”