In August of 2021, we hiked a famous 34-mile trail in the Icelandic Highlands…
(If you are here because you are planning to do this hike and want to read my lessons and recommendations, you can skip to here. What follows is an account of my own hike.)
After a couple of days of lolling about in Reykjavik, taking the famous Golden circle tour, and sampling the sugary goodness of cinnamon buns at Braud and Co (thrice!), we took a Reykjavik Excursions bus to Landmannalaugur to start our hut-to-hut hike of the Laugavegur trail. We didn’t hire guides or go with a group. Armed with knowledge from some serious studying on YouTube and websites, we were ready to tackle the journey self-guided.
Day 0, our first look at a FI hut
On the day we arrived at Landmannalaugur, we got situated, took a relaxing bath in the natural hot spring nearby, and hiked half-way to the peak of the Blahnukur mountain. The hut and the campsites were thrumming with people speaking French, German, Italian, Icelandic and a handful of other languages. The smell of sulfur from the hot springs mingled with the stench of sweat from the hikers was intense.
We made friends and got acquainted with our very first mountain hut of the journey.
The mountain huts on Laugavegur had cozy sleeping arrangements and fairly well-equipped kitchens. We stayed at FI huts throughout the hike. Most of them had flushable toilets and hot water (for a price) piped in from natural thermal springs. You leave your dirty hiking boots outside, and traipse around the hut in your camp shoes or (if you are like me) camp socks. The huts are heated and can be very warm with so many people inside, but I still had plenty of use for my silk sleeping sack and my REI summer quilt.
While worries about communal sleeping arrangements during COVID jostled with other worries about snorers keeping me awake at night, in reality, I slept like I was inside my mother’s womb every night on the trail. I was tired and tiredness brings on sleep like little else. I also sleep well when I am in nature and disconnected from the nagging anxieties of my busy life. Bottom line, I didn’t have much use for my sleeping mask or my ear plugs.
Day 1, Landmannalaugur to Hrafntinnusker
This day will go down in my memory as the day that taught me how intense a 12 meters per second wind could be. In fact, this was when I even started paying attention to units of wind measurement. Just listen to the clamor of the unstoppable the wind that day in the video below.
The wind felt dangerous, especially at one section where I had to crouch down as I went over an exposed saddle. The fog was thick and the clouds low, so we could not see any of the pink, green, and blue Rhyolite mountains that this section is famous for. It took us about 8 hours to get to the next hut, but we were ecstatic when we spotted the carmine roofs of Hrafntinnusker.
Hrafntinnusker hut was very basic and tiny. It could win the award for the stinkiest toilet of the trip — no flush — and was packed like a peak hour Indian train. We made more friends at this hut: Kol, Tom, and Ron from Oregon, and Peter from California. We slept in a small side room in the attic.
Day 2, Hrafntinnusker to Álftavatn
Next morning dawned bright, cold, and calm. We packed our bags and set off early.
The biggest challenge during this leg came in the form of innumerable gullies that had been created by the snowfall and snowmelt of the season. We had to walk up and down these gullies. The gullies were steep, formed of loose rocks and silt, and offered no purchase for the foot. There was no real trail in sections. You just had to find the least slippery path over them, which most of the time was to follow where other people had already walked. It was slow-going. Finally, by around 1pm, we reached the beautifully located Álftavatn hut.
At Álftavatn, we chatted up more fellow hikers: an Israeli woman named Gil who was a pre-med student, her data scientist boyfriend Ariel, a Frenchman named Christian, and his lawyer wife Stephanie. These friendships would last the rest of our trip and beyond.
Álftavatn has a tiny restaurant where they served hot food, chocolates, and beer. The menu even included a vegan lentil curry soup. Granted a bar of KitKat cost $5 and a bowl of soup cost $40, but we were in heaven that we could find REAL, not-freeze-dried food!
Day 3, Álftavatn to Emstrur
Next day, on our way to Emstur, we crossed the first river of this trip. I undressed to my running shorts, put on my rain pants, unclipped my backpack, removed my socks, and changed into my river shoes for the crossing. This river was not too deep or swift or cold. It was refreshing to get my feet in the water. There was a rope tied between two big rocks on the opposite shores of this river. I held on to it as I crossed.
After the river crossing, there was an interminably long stretch of flat, rock strewn lava desert. It was here that I learned my very first tough lesson of this hike. A lesson that, in fact, could be a life lesson.
As the terrain became flat, I let my guard down and stopped paying to attention to where I was going. I was taking pictures, trying to relieve my sore neck, and mindlessly puttering on. And that’s when it happened. In the middle of a large lava field, my right foot hit a rock that wouldn’t move, and I fell flat on my face. My backpack pushed against my spine, my camera lay squarely underneath my shoulders and I was splayed on my stomach on the trail.
The impact was so sudden that I lost my sense for a minute of two. When I came to my senses, I realized I was eating dirt. My husband, who was a few feet behind, came running toward me. I slowly hefted myself up, checked the camera (some dirt had got in, but the lens was intact, thank god!), checked my legs (a scraped, bleeding knee, but no serious harm, thank god!), and shuffled over to sit on a rock by the side of the trail. My ego was bruised and my confidence shaken, but my body was not broken. I could carry on after a few minutes of resting.
When I got to the Emstrur hut, I was exhausted. My husband helped clean and bandage my knee and then went with a few other hikers for some side hike — a canyon walk that supposedly was spectacular. I put the kettle on for my chai and my pad thai. Gil — a vegetarian — and Ariel made a sizzling hot pot of lentils and rice (from real lentils and rice!) with homemade spices. The fragrance had my mouth watering. I made a mental note to bring some real food on our next backpacking trip.
Day 4, Emstrur to Thórsmörk
The last day of the trek featured our biggest, deepest, coldest, swiftest river crossing. I had been rather worried about this river crossing since I am not a fan of cold and I do not know how to swim. The last thing I wanted on this hike was for the rapid currents swirling straight from the glaciers to carry me downstream or, worse, drown me.
Turns out, humans choose the wrong things to worry about — another life lesson of this journey. Maybe we lucked out, or maybe the water levels were low since it was late in the season, or maybe my strategy of wearing rain pants for the cold and using hiking poles for the balance helped. But the river crossing was way easier than I expected. Before long, we were on the other side of the river Throngá and hiking uphill through our first birch woods of the trek to our last hut of the trek.
Day 5, Hikes at Thórsmörk
We had planned to carry to the Fimmvörðuháls hike after we finished Laugavegur. We wanted to hike to the pass, stay at a hut that was located between two glaciers (Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull) for one night, and then walk down the next morning to a town called Skógar. It would add 16 miles and two more days to our adventure.
Sadly, it was not to be. The day after we finished the hike, winds picked up to 18–20 meters per second. The hut warden — who with his long golden locks and keen blue eyes was an image of Chris Hemsworth, the actor that plays Thor in the Marvel movies; but maybe I was just hallucianting — advised us to stay put at Thórsmörk that day and, if possible, cross the pass the following day. But our subsequent schedule just didn’t allow such a change. We had to pick up our rental car the next day and start our Ring Road journey. So we had to abandon the idea of continuing on to Fimmvörðuháls.
Fimmvörðuháls is our unfinished business. We plan to go back and do that hike another time. For now, we contented ourselves with hiking up to the top of Valanuhkur, and walking a tiny portion of the Fimmvörðuháls trail to the notoriously narrow Cat’s Spine.
Some tactical things
Packing List
Here is what I packed for the trip.
This list includes both what I had on my body during the hike and what was inside my REI Flash 55 backpack.
- Food: 3 Freeze-dried dinners and 3 breakfasts from REI. My husband carried 3 more of each. My husband also carried 12 protein bars and a couple of pounds of mixed nuts. I carried a bag of Chai latte powder and some fresh bread and butter from Reykjavik.
- Water: 1 sturdy SmartWater bottle. My husband carried 2 more. We used about 2–3 liters of water between the two of us each day. We took some extra platypus bladders for additional water store for the Fimmvörðuháls hike.
- Outer layers: REI rain pants, Patagonia Torrentshell waterproof jacket, Patagonia Nanopuff jacket, a beanie, a buff, NRS water-resistant paddling gloves, 1 pair of SmartWool socks to wear and 1 to change into at the hut, 1 pair of Injinji wool socks as liner (to prevent blisters)
- Clothing: 2 pairs of underwear, a full-sleeve synthetic shirt for the hut, a pair of running shorts, a pair of Smartwool thermal leggings, a hat
- Toileteries: Dr. Bronner camp soap, Dr. Bronner toothpaste, toothbrush, vaseline, sunscreen, a comb, sleeping mask, and ear plugs
- First-aid kit: LOTS of band-aid (came in handy!), antiseptic cream, Ibuprofen, some cold meds, and a pair of plastic tweezers
- A pair of carbon hiking poles and sunglasses
- REI Magma quilt and a silk sleeping bag liner
- A pair of river crossing shoes
- Katoola Microspikes
I hiked on my fairly new La Sportiva Ultra Raptor waterproof hiking shoes. I had bought these shoes just a month before the trip. I have wide toes and feet with very little volume, and I often don’t find shoes that fit me well in the US. La Sportiva fit me like shoes that were custom-designed for my feet!
I still did a lot of training on them before I embarked on the trip, but I didn’t have to break them in at all.
Training
My husband and I started training at least a month before the trip. We hiked the usual suspects in the Seattle area: Mount Si, Little Si, Cougar Mountain, Squak Mountain, and our friendly neighborhood Tolt Powerline trail. We loaded our packs, took our poles, donned our hiking boots, and walked up and down local hills, at least 6 miles every weekend and most evenings.
I am not sure if this training regimen was enough or even helped during the hike, but after doing many of these multi-day hikes now, I know that training a bit is just a smart idea. Some people say you get fitter during the first days of your hike and can forego the training, but why not start the journey feeling somewhat comfortable?
What I learned (or would recommend based on my experience)
- Expect wind, rain, mist, and clouds — sometimes all four. The saying “there is no bad weather, just bad equipment” is only partially true here. There is some REALLY bad weather when the best thing to do is to stay sheltered with your cup of hot beverage and not venture out. Still, pack good rain pants, a wind layer, waterproof jacket, gloves, beanie, and shoes that won’t leave your feet cold and soggy.
- Let’s stay on the topic of weather for a minute longer. Weather turns on a whim in Iceland. So if you see sunshine, cover more ground. Do not waste the good fortune of friendly weather. Staying in a tent can give you that extra bit of flexibility, but wardens also seem to accommodate moving reservations from one hut to another.
- Bring hiking poles. Poles came in handy when we crossed rivers and when navigating screes and gullies.
- This one is a no-brainer, but wear hiking shoes or trail runners with good traction and a sturdy sole. The terrain is rocky and covered with loose volcanic dirt. You need all the help you can get.
- I took a lightweight quilt and felt comfortable. My husband skipped taking his and was miserably cold some nights. You do not need a heavy sleeping bag if you’re sleeping in huts, but bring something more than a thin coverup.
- Bring a good amount of food, more than you think you need. Some real food — like lentils, rice, noodles, bread — brings comfort at the end of tiring days. Likewise, bring some teabags or powdered chai so you can make yourself a hot drink on cold evenings.
- Microspikes might have been necessary if we had gone on to Fimmvörðuháls, but for the Laugavegur hike, they were not needed.
- Camera clips can be convenient, but also dangerous. I fell on my face during the hike partly because I was tired and not paying attention, but also because the camera shifted my balance and obscured my view ahead. When I fell, I could have crushed my lens underneath me. Thankfully, my camera did fine, but I am not using camera clips in the future. I learned it is too risky to have expensive equipment on me, so exposed to the elements. Now my husband lugs our camera on his back, clipped using carabiners to his backpack.
- River crossings were fun! I used rain pants over my running shorts and that helped dull the pain of the piercing cold water. Like I read online, we picked the broadest part of the river to ford, walked facing upstream, used our poles for balance, unclipped our backpacks, and wore river shoes over bare feet.
- There are plenty of water sources on each leg of the trail, but bring a wide-mouthed container so you can easily fill up at streams. Our SmartWater bottles made it too clumsy and slow to fill water from a flowing river. Each leg is also short enough that you need just 1 to 1.5 liters of water a day per person.
- You do not need the help of a guide for this trail, especially if you are a moderately experienced hiker. Sure, there were areas where the waymarkers were easy to miss, there were gullies and inclines with slippery surface, and there were some glacially cold, swift river crossings. But there was nothing intensely technical that we thought could not be done self-guided.
- Being in nature clears your mind and refreshes you. No matter how hard you think the hike is, doing it makes you more confident, happier, and leaves you with grand memories for life. Despite the horrible weather in sections, the tough terrain, my throbbing shoulders and neck, my hurt knee, what felt like insatiable hunger every evening, the hike was a highlight of my year. I’d do it again.
To go to my post about driving the Ring Road, click here. To read about my overall thoughts and tips gathered from this trip, click here
