We left Hofn early this morning after an unremarkable day yesterday and headed west. The first stop was the Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon. We had spent the previous hour driving over sandy wasteland, remnants of the glaciers retreating. After rounding the corner, there it was. This eerie pool of calm water with icebergs floating in it. We walked along the water checking out these beautiful shapes of ice and the seals that stopped by to say hello. Add wild seals to the wild reindeer that I've seen this trip.
We moved on from the lagoon though and headed to the national park. I'd booked a half day glacier hike through Glacier Guides (if any of you ever go to Iceland, book a tour through them...FANTASTIC)
After checking in, we were handed a harness, a helmet, crampons, and an ice ax. All pretty intimidating for a newbie like me. Our group of 10 from all over the world, drove about 15 minutes to a glacier, past the one dubbed "the Hollywood" glacier where Game of Thrones is filmed. The glacier we were on was privy to glacier guides.
We hiked about 45 minutes before hitting ice. The guide told us that the start of the hike was where the glacier was in 1990. The bottom shelf of the glacier is predicted to be gone within the next 5-10 years, and last year was the biggest drop in the amount of ice ever. Which makes me so sad.
Anyway, after we got our crampons on and a swift tutorial on waking on ice and how to stay away from the "fall zone" we headed aboard. I don't think I'm going to ever be able to properly describe the things I saw. They were truly spectacular. We saw blue ice that was over 700 years old, we saw deep crevices that were like open holes into the earths sole. We heard and saw chunks of ice break off from the ice wall ahead. We were on the ice for about 3 hours and it went by in the blink of an eye. The blues and the black amid the white ice were outer worldly. I'm still processing the beauty of today. Simply amazing.
I feel since I probably crushed some soles with my global warming destroying our planet thing, the guide told us about some "good" news happening with this particular glacier. The British geological society monitors this glacier daily. They have had originally predicted the entire glacier to be gone by 2080, however what they have found is interesting. The lower ice shelf, which will still be gone in 5 years, has been rendered dead by the glacier, so it's moved its focus inward. There has been thickening of the main part of the glacier since 2009, which buys some time. While this isn't applicable to all glaciers, not even the one right next to the one we climbed today, it does provide some hope that maybe we can save this planet. Maybe nature will find a way.
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