Iceland's glaciers are among the biggest in the world. Remember the last year's volcano eruption, the one that disrupted all the flights? Well, a volcano just next to it is well past due with an eruption, too - only that one's crater is hidden under a glacier and will provoke dangerous and unpredictable flooding.
Anyhow, glacier: such a fun experience! There's a glacier tongue that descends right to the ground level. From afar, it looks like dirty snow. Nothing to write home about.
We were given crampons,
...a harness (presumably so that they could pick up our bodies in case we fall into a crevasse)
...and an axe (presumably for photo-posing).
Shall we go?
We spent about 3 hours on the glacier. We walked this and that way. There were deep cauldrons and crevasses all over. On this picture below, it's just an opening, it keeps on going deeper and deeper into the glacier.
We learned how to spot disguised cauldrons - that innocently look like snow but are, in fact, dozens of meters deep. The snow isn't packed, so you'll fall right through. A mom and a daughter fell last year. Mom died instantaneously, they managed to rescue the daughter. Don't go there without a guide and proper equipment!
We saw an ice rose: when an under-the-surface water current gets blocked, the water moves up and forms a well. The edges of the well look somewhat like a rose. It is also dozens of meters deep.
We didn't see any crevasses that were truly deep, but stepping over them was still a bit spooky.
We even went through a cave. The unpleasant part was that the path leading to the cave's entrance was clearly located above some kind of a tunnel. I kept thinking we're about to fall through into the tunnel...
While we were there, we experienced sun, rain, and snow. That's the Icelandic weather for you.
The deep-blue color of the ice means it's very dense. There is more water and less oxygen.
Overall, this was a fun experience!
Maybe next time we'll do something more difficult. Like an opportunity to actually use the ax!
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