Ski Touring on the Troll Peninsula Iceland
At the end of winter we headed up to the Troll Peninsula at the Northern most part of Iceland, for some ski touring. The area is excellent for touring with amazing views and great terrain easily accessible by car. We flew into Reykjavik hired a car and within 6 hours driving through stunning landscape we’d made it to our base the fishing village of Ólafsfjörður at the Northern tip of the Peninsula.
Conditions weren’t perfect for ski touring, it was very hot! Although the snow line still, just about, made it down to the coastal road so we would drive along until we saw a peak we fancied put our skins on and head on up. The stunning views of the frozen fjords made you forget about your legs.
Once we got up high the snow cover was far better although the heat was providing some marginal conditions. There was plenty of avalanche debris and the snow was akin to porridge!
In the evenings we sampled some of the finest Icelandic delicacies and drunk non alcoholic beer. We didn’t realise that you could only buy alcohol in government run off licenses, so the beer we bought in the supermarket turned out to be a traditional malty Christmas drink!
On the last day the ski touring was made a lot easier via the help of a local. As we got kitted up in the mist, a guy arrived on his skidoo and gave us a tow up the valley. The local was from Extreme a Skidoo company operating in the area and well worth checking out if you’re on the Peninsula. He saved us a few kms and got us to the top of the peak earlier, on this day we had the best snow and we finished with wet feet after crossing a river.
On days off we went to check out the best Iceland has to offer, the scenery is epic and we bathed in natural hot pools, stood on volcanoes and watched the earth bubble away. Iceland we had a great time and will be back.
