Sólheimajökull Glacier Hike & Ice Climbing Intro - Small Group

Daniel was awesome, very fun, a little wet and chilly but is to be expected

We had a great time! The ice climbing was a really fun experience, and we were blessed with sunny weather. I never felt unsafe. I was grateful that this company picked us up from reykjavik, even if it made for a long day. Our driver even dropped us off at our hotel 15 minutes outside reykjavik and we super appreciated that! Only thing I would say is plan to get your own food and snacks. Its a very long day. But worth it!

Daniel is the best guide / coach I have ever met. He guided us through the whole ice climbing experience carefully, and teach us all the essential techniques, knowledge and skills on the whole exploring. He also gave us very tender care and emotional support which is utmost important for us to break through and be our best. He is thus the best. Salute to him and I will recommend this first-class guide / coach to all my friends and any others. ❤️❤️

Daniel, our hiking and climbing guide, was fantastic. His knowledge, humor, expertise, and skill set was perfect for our group. He made us feel safe and let us be adventurous all at once. I would highly recommend Daniel for your glacier hike and climb.

This was a truly once in a lifetime experience. The tour provided by Gunn on the drive was delightful and Francesco on the ice climbing was outstanding. Both of these two were 10/10 experiences and were clear experts in their respective fields.

We had a fantastic experience with Daniel as our guide for the Sólheimajökull Glacier small group Hike and intro Ice Climb. Not only was the hike beautiful and just the right amount of challenging (moderate), the climbing experience was once-in-a-lifetime for sure. I went with my wife and my teenager, we are relatively fit and Daniel made it a nice workout. If you listen to him you will have a very very enjoyable time. Definitely go with the small group experience and definitely pay the $11 for the specialty ice climbing boots. The crampons will either slip on, or ruin, normal hiking boots. I for one don't get a chance to climb ice walls very often (ever), so definitely just go all-in. Totally worth it. 5-stars.

This was a great experience for our whole family. You could tell they took safety seriously and our guide was wonderful.

This was one of the most disappointing tours I have ever taken, especially compared to what was advertised. The website describes this as a “Blue Ice - Ice Climbing Adventure” with “three hours of pure ice exploration,” glacier hiking through crevasses, ridges, ice walls, moulins, blue-hued frost, and a knowledgeable guide explaining the glacier’s history and geology. That is not what we experienced. The tour started out of an old, dilapidated American school bus that was leaking from the roof. The condition of the bus immediately made the experience feel cheap and poorly maintained, and the equipment did not feel much better. For the price of this tour, I expected a professional adventure operation, not something that felt thrown together with outdated gear and a leaking bus. The biggest issue was the boot situation. The website clearly states that guests need “sturdy hiking boots with ankle support that fit crampons” and says boots are available to rent if you do not own a pair. We did own and wear sturdy hiking boots, but we were still forced to rent their boots for 30,000 ISK. It was not presented as optional, and nowhere on the website did it say that boot rental would be mandatory even if you showed up with appropriate hiking boots. That felt like an undisclosed extra charge and a bait-and-switch. The actual glacier experience was also nowhere near what was promised. We hiked roughly one kilometer onto the glacier, reached a crevice, and were told to stand in one small designated area while the guides set up the climbing rope. We then waited around an hour just standing there. We were not allowed to walk around, explore, or even move to look at anything else. When I moved briefly out of boredom to try to actually see something on the trip, I was told to get back to the spot. I understand glacier safety matters, but this did not feel like a serious safety issue. Another tour had school-age children in the same general area. The issue seemed to be that the group size was too large for the setup. There were 13 guests and only two guides managing the rope, which meant most of the tour was spent standing around waiting instead of hiking, exploring, learning, or climbing. After waiting about an hour, I got one climb that lasted maybe 30 seconds. Then we moved about 100 meters to another crevice, waited over an hour again, and climbed there twice. Two of the three climbs were on the same wall. After that, we walked back to the bus and returned the gear. So for a five-hour experience, we walked about a kilometer onto the glacier, stood in place for most of the tour, and climbed only three times total. There was very little exploration, very little instruction, very little movement, and very little of the glacier education that was promised in the description. The website sells this as an exciting ice-climbing adventure and glacier exploration experience. In reality, it felt like an overpriced waiting session with a few short climbs attached. The glacier itself was beautiful, but the tour did not deliver what was advertised. Between the leaking bus, old equipment, undisclosed mandatory boot rental, excessive waiting, limited climbing, and lack of meaningful glacier exploration, I would not recommend this tour. It felt like a waste of both time and money.

Daniel (our guide) and the team onsite are excellent. He is very good with people, very patient, and very instructive. He also is very safety conscious. The experience itself is limited by a couple things. Boots should be mandatory and included in the price if you intend to climb. There is too much time wasted trying to get ready to go, with people deciding they don't want boots and then regretting it once they are on the ice. This also takes away from the climbing experience later when people don't have the right boots. I would suggest that this be divided into two groups - those who want to go on the glacier and maybe try climbing and those who actually want to go out and climb and learn more about climbing. The team is excellent but they are limited by the variance in skills and interests of the customers, and they can and should be able to do more.

Franco was the best guide! He was flexible on a variable weather day and really customized the tour to the abilities of our group. It was our first time trying ice climbing and he was the perfect person to teach us. We felt incredibly safe with his guidance and he gave us enough sense of adventure to push ourselves. His love of Iceland, the land, and the glacier is clearly evident. 10/10 recommend this activity for anyone wanting something a little more adventurous and challenging.