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Glacier Ice Climbing
  • Glacier Hiking
  • Ice Climbing

Glacier Ice Climbing

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A full day glacier adventure for ice hiking, ice climbing and learning glacier travel techniques on Vatnajökull glacier, Iceland’s biggest glacier! Local Guide of Vatnajökull is a small local family company close to Skaftafell nature reserve.

Tour type
Day Tour / Activity
Duration
4 hours
Difficulty
Challenging
Pickup service
No
Booking in advance
2 days
Availability
June
Minimum age
16 years
Guide
Live guide

The experience

About this tour

Our ice climbing tour is perfect for those looking for a half-day out on the glacier, leaving no ice crystal unturned. Our most adventurous tour is suitable for those looking for both a challenge and a unique experience in Iceland. A good level of fitness and enthusiasm is recommended but no prior experience is necessary.

The Glacier Ice Climbing tour goes beyond standard top-roping ice climbing and teaches you new hard ice skills. We can incorporate hiking, ice climbing, via ferrata, rope work and safety techniques for glacier travel. Our public ice climbing tour focuses on a small group experience with a maximum of 6 people in the group only. We value your time and we make sure to maximize your experience on ice, providing as many opportunities for climbing the glacier walls as possible.  With just you and our highly skilled glacier guide, we make sure this tour will be the highlight of your holidays in Iceland.

What to expect on the tour?

First climb is a teaching climb. The guide will pick an appropriate wall and go over some ice climbing techniques. Whether the guests are beginners or experienced climbers, going over the technique is always a good way to start the day. Then we moved on to a more challenging climb and built up with more interesting climbs until the guest reached their energy limits or simply we ran out of time. Having this size of group makes every trip easily adjustable to the participants. For example, if you are a keen group of climbers you will be able to experience up to 2 climbs but if the participants want to walk more and climb less this would be also possible.

Please keep in mind that walking time will change a lot as the glacier changes and the guide has to find the right challenge for his guests. It is also worth mentioning that the walk between climbing spots is a good time to rest up for the next climb! 🙂

What to bring: Outdoor clothing appropriate to the weather as well as a hat, gloves (sunglasses and sunscreen are recommended if sunny) as well as food and water for the day carried in a small backpack.

Included: Ice climbing boots, climbing crampons, Ice climbing axes, all the other safety equipment.

Cancellation policy as for our public tours. Read more

  • Outdoor

What the price covers

Included
4 Hours Tour With 3h On The IceIce Hiking, Ice Climbing And Rope Work On The Glacier
Professional Trained Adventure Glacier GuideWe Will Choose The Best Glacier In The Area Close To Skaftafell
4×4 Transfer From Our Base To The GlacierSmall Group Size (max 6 Persons Per Guide)
Supporting A Small Local Family CompanyAll Our Tours Are Carbon Neutralized
Not included
- Food And Drinks Are Not Included- Rain Gear
- Hat And Gloves
Bring
  • Outdoor clothing as according to weather, hat, gloves, sunglasses if sunny and a small backpack with a packed lunch, drinks and snacks for the day.
Ticket types
  • Glacier Ice Cimbing (16+)

Where it starts

Meeting
Meet on location
Pickup
No
Location code
Skaftafell (Skaftafell, IS)

Good to know

Your ticket

Please be at the meeting point at least 15 min before the departure.

Meeting point for our Glacier Discovery tour: Freysnes Gas station Parking Lot. The Local Guide base is at Freysnes petrol station, 320km east of Reykjavík. It is located by the main highway road number 1, across the road from Hótel Skaftafell. When driving the ring road from Reykjavík direction it is on your right, five minutes after passing a sign for Skaftafell Nature Reserve. See the map here.

Google Maps: Freysnes (Orkan / Shell petrol station) GPS: 63.990591, -16.896465

All of our tours are fully carbon neutralized.

We offer a 24h cancellation policy with a full refund on our public tours.

Local Guide and its guides reserve the right to refuse service to anyone they deem unfit to participate in the activities they have enrolled in.  Local Guide reserves the right to change the tour itinerary and chosen route with safety in mind due to environmental factors and other factors outside human control. Furthermore, we don’t repay the fee if the client is late, or doesn’t show up even if the weather is very bad, in case we can offer the trip. So we recommend staying in a hotel or guesthouse east of Skaftafell in Vatnajokull National Park, and west of the town of Höfn.

Type
Day Tour / Activity
Season
June
Requests confirmed within
2 days
Live guide
Icelandic, English
Details updated
4 Aug 2026