Snowmobiling in Iceland – a snowmobile adventure on Mýrdalsjökull glacier

Just one of the highlights of our excursion to Iceland was a snowmobile adventure on Mýrdalsjökull glacier, Iceland’s fourth most significant glacier, with Icelandic Mountain Guides. If a snowmobile tour in Iceland is a thing that appeals to you, browse on to understand far more about what you can be expecting.

Icelandic Mountain Guides’ main foundation is at Ytri-Sólheimar 1 in Mýrdalur, about 25 km west of Vík and about 11 km east of Skógar. If travelling from Reykjavik, the distance is all over 160 km and the driving time is close to 2 several hours. From the most important Iceland ring highway to the base, it’s a 1.2 km drive on road 222.

You are going to most probably want to ebook in progress but, the moment at the foundation and your booking confirmed, the initial factor you are going to do is get kitted out. Icelandic Mountain Guides supply you with an general that goes about the apparel you are by now putting on, boots, a balaclava, a helmet and gloves… and then you are fantastic to go!

There is a large truck waiting around to just take you and your fellow snowmobilers up to the glacier.

It’s all around a 30-minute generate about tough terrain and then on to the glacier by itself.

There are a amount of snomobiles waiting for us at the conclude of the truck ride, and we are accompanied by two instructors who offer us with an introduction to the equipment and a security briefing.

Initially, we are shown how to switch the snowmobile on. We transform the ignition midway to convert the electrics on, wait around a brief while and then transform it totally to start out it up. Equally, we use the critical to change it off or, in the party of an emergency, a large red button that kills the machine. The moment on the snowmobile, we do not need to have to have interaction it equipment – we just press a button to implement consistent, steady strain – that way you have a nice and continual trip. The least complicated way to quit is to release the gas but there is a brake that can be employed in situation of an unexpected emergency. There are hand warmers also – put them to the right and they get really warm, set them to the left and they get a minor bit warm, center they are off

With the principles lined, we’re on to the topic of safety. The one particular really important safety factor to include is what happens if you tumble in excess of the device. It can happen and apparently really takes place pretty regularly (whilst there ended up no such incidents from any one on our excursion). But you however will need to bear in mind a few definitely fundamental matters and, should really you be ready, slipping about will just be one thing to chuckle about rather than something significant.

The just one most important point to bear in mind is that, if the machine is falling above, you do not stick your arm or your leg out to catch it. If you do that, the machine weighs about 350kg (somewhere around 600 lbs) and all of that body weight goes on to your arm or on to your leg which, as you can visualize, is not entertaining.

So, what do you do? As the driver, you’re holding on to the handlebars – you simply just seize them actually tight, and retain your legs to the centre of the machine, brace by yourself and fall in excess of keeping on to the machine. For the passenger, you have some handles in close proximity to your hips that you equally maintain on to (relatively than holding on to the driver in front). As prolonged as you do this, you will be completely safe and sound. Snowmobiles are constructed as crash bins and are built to guard you. Just don’t stick your limbs outside of the device and you are likely to be risk-free. Your intuition will be to be place your hand or leg out, so it is important to be quite knowledgeable so you really don’t let this happen.

With that discussed, we’re advised how not to drop in excess of in the to start with location. We find out that, any time you are driving, you require to counteract the power that’s attempting to pull you off the equipment. If you transform to the remaining, the pressure will pull you to the correct, so you lean to the left with your body. The opposite, of training course, is real if you flip to the suitable. Equally, if you are driving up a hill, gravity will check out to pull you backwards, so you would lean to the hill to counteract this drive. And even if you should drop more than, the team are on hand to enable you if that occurs.

With all that stated, we push in one file, with a single instructor at the entrance and a single at the back. We continue to keep to paths in the snow, preserving a risk-free length of at the very least 5 metres involving just about every other.

There is no overtaking as this can be rather perilous. And, if we should really have a dilemma, we are advised to just halt and increase a hand, and they’ll be with us shortly.

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The entire operation is quite slick with at least one stop in the excursion where we can transform drivers.

The temperature experienced turned a very little from how it was previously in the day, and visibility was really lousy. This didn’t spoil our enjoyment however!

We adhere to an ‘out and back’ route – climbing from a peak of 915 metres up to just above 1,290 metres, ahead of switching motorists and heading again down the glacier. It is an exhilarating experience and ou can see the actual route we took listed here:

No past snowmobiling expertise is demanded, but all motorists should be 17 yrs of age or more mature and have a entire, valid driver’s license. A learner´s allow, tractor or bike license is not ample in accordance to Icelandic regulation. The good thing is for our eldest son, he handed his driving exam not lengthy in advance of our excursion to Iceland, so this was a excellent working experience for him!

Ordinarily on this tour, you’d be capable to appreciate the glacial landscapes and scenery more than south Iceland, but the climate was sadly not in our favour for that.

The lack of views aspect, this was even now a definitely exciting excusion and, for us, a absolutely new experience as a family. We would leap at the chance to do it again one particular working day, for the reason that the site is reportedly very scenic, with certainly fantastic views on a sunny working day!

Organizing a vacation to Iceland by yourself? You can observe a video clip from our vacation to Iceland below:

Disclosure: This article is sponsored by Icelandic Mountain Guides. Our trip to Iceland was also sponsored by Helly Hansen.