Ice Climbing in Iceland

Jorge, look away now.

Ok. Ice climbing in Iceland was the most expensive activity I have ever paid for.

That's not saying a lot though, because I never book excursions and Iceland, in general, is pricey but I am putting this out there to let you know that it was out of my norm as far as money goes and it was absolutely, 100% worth it.

I booked our tour through Glacier Guides and I reserved the glacier hike plus ice climb day tour. I will say, that it seemed to me (to the credit of the guides) that they made game day decisions depending on weather and the fitness level of their participants on what route to take, and the length/difficulty of the hike.

We ended up doing the hike with a brother/sister pair who were taking a short holiday in Iceland in a camper van. I thought they were a couple at first and made a joke that they should get closer when I took their picture but the brother quickly corrected me :). So, luckily, we ended up being a small group of fairly fit, young travelers and our guide was able to go pretty far out and find some deep crevasses for us to climb. Looking back, this makes Jorge nervous but I didn't think anything of it at the time and would easily do it again. I also remember walking on the roof of our house in Florida when I was around 5 so I think a fear of heights has been forced out of me by necessity.

A couple tips:

• This exact excursion is not that physically challenging but you do need to be moderately fit and if you are really heavy and unable to lift your body weight you will make it very tough and maybe even dangerous for the guides. My guess is they just won't do a lot, if any, ice climbing in that case. 
• The crampons were a new experience for me but I figured it out relatively easily and I had never done any sort of rappelling or climbing before. They take a minute to get used to, but then it's sort of second nature.
• I am not at all scared of heights, so this didn't worry me but Jorge was a little more cautious about it. I think if you are really scared of heights it might not be the best option for you. I couldn't tell you how deep the crevasses were but my guess is if you fell you would break something but still (probably) live.
• I'm sure each guide will have recommended gear on their website, but ours provided all the climbing gear: helmets, harnesses, boots/crampons and the little axes. I wore thermal tights, a base layer, a fleece, waterproof pants and a waterproof jacket with a hood as well as gloves. This is when I really loved my waterproof jacket because the hood is intended to be worn over a helmet and it fit nicely. I felt perfectly prepared as far as clothing went.
• You will be hungry. We packed a couple snacks and went through all of them while we were on the ice. We were both still so hungry that when we got to the hotel that night, it was one of the rare times we got a full meal in a restaurant.
• Bring your camera: you will get some of the most amazing shots.

Our fantastic tour guide, drilling bolts into the ice.