After working as a glacier guide for just about a year and a half now I jumped at the chance to improve my guiding skill set by taking the Hard Ice 2 course (Jökla 2 in Icelandic). This course is designed to teach you how to guide in terrain that is a little bit more spicy than a regular walk/hiking tour, in addition to running an ice climbing tour as well as some improved rope skills and finally a well polished crevasse extraction.
The course I attended took place over 4 days in October and each day we hiked to a new glacier in the Vatnajökull National Park. We had 8 participants on the course, most of who are colleagues of mine. We were quite fortunate with the weather for the first two days on the course, by the third day the weather took a turn for the worse with some sporadic showers throughout the day and by the time we left the glacier the heavens opened up and it started to pour down. Luckily at this point we were already headed towards the bus back home so we didn’t get too soaked!
Day 1: Svínafellsjökull
The first day was used by our instructors to gauge our current skills as glacier guides as well as to see how good our crevasse extractions were. We were also given some training on how to run an ice climbing tour and also how to help out clients who cannot complete a climb! Having never set foot on this glacier I had a very hard time navigating a path to actually get onto the ice itself. Unbeknownst to me, heavy rain fell the day before the course began so the original access point to the glacier had flooded out and I now had to find a new way on. Not only this, but ever since commercial operations had ceased on this glacier (due to an impending mountain collapse) the typical walking paths had all been reclaimed by nature. After spending some time walking back and forth, up and down I finally managed to find a somewhat adequate spot to put on crampons and then hit the ice.
We all did some basic guiding on the glacier until we found an adequate spot for our crevasse extraction exercise – a 12 metre deep crevasse with a pretty gnarly overhang at the bottom. Despite doing some practice in the weeks before this course, I still found this exercise to be very difficult due to the distance and the overhanging ice. I was unable to ascend the rope very effectively, which cost me a lot of time. In the end however, I managed to rescue my victim and get him up on top. After we all had our turns rescuing each other we did a bit of ice climbing practice in the same crevasse, which was quite fun. We learned a few new tricks here and there for when our clients may need assistance in climbing back up, which does tend to happen now that we’re entering the winter months and the glacial ice turns blue and hard. Once all this was said and done we began our trek back off the ice and back to the bus home.
Day 2: Skaftafellsjökull
This was one long day. Today’s task was to traverse this glacier from the east to the west. We started out first by parking on the eastern side of the glacier near a mountain path that is regularly used on trips to summit some of the surrounding mountains. After jumping a sheep fence we all started our hike to the glacier along what seemed to be a trail. Our instructors told us that during the hike to the glacier we were to keep our eyes on the glacier and make a mental map of it so that once we arrived at the edge we could easily navigate to the central plateau/depression area. So with one eye on the glacier and the other on the ‘trail’ we made our way through the valley and ever closer to the glacier. There were some spots where we walked by steep drops down into the valley floor as well as a spot where we needed to jump over slimy rocks in a fast flowing stream. Other than that it was quite scenic! In the end, the hike took approximately 30 minutes before we made it to the eastern edge of the glacier. We strapped on our crampons at this point and began our hike onto the ice.
Once on the ice we proceeded to try and guide our way safely through a heavily crevassed area and onto the plateau area. This took a lot longer than expected because we had to continuously zigzag our way along and through the crevasses until we reach a point where it was safe enough to walk straight onto the plateau area. After reaching the plateau it was easy enough to stroll around and check out some neat features on the ice (including a cool little ice cave) and from there we headed to a huge moulin where we had to perform another crevasse extraction seeing as many of us didn’t meet the required time limit the day before. Luckily this time the wall we had to scale wasn’t as hardcore as the day before so things went much smoother this time! We took a quick bite to eat before setting off towards a mini ice fall area on the glacier. Here we practiced some new short roping techniques as well as how to set up a fixed line in terrain that is a bit too dangerous to walk in normally. As time went by in this ice fall area we realised that the sun was soon to set so we had to get our move on and hike to the western side of the glacier as quick as possible.
Our next task was to guide through the western side of the glacier quickly but safely in diminishing daylight – not an easy task for sure. Eventually things got a bit too dark for your liking so we had to whip out the headlamps and just scramble our way out of there and finally off the glacier as night fell. Unfortunately since we parked our bus at the eastern side of the glacier, someone had to drive it to the main car park in the west which was close to an hours hike away. So on we hiked in the darkness back to the bus and back home!
Day 3: Falljökull
This turned out to be the final day on ice for our course and we were all dreading it because the weather forecast for the day showed nonstop rain during the entire time we were on the glacier. Fortunately the forecast was wrong and we only received a couple of small showers during the day and it only really started to pour down when we began our walk back to the bus after the training was done.
Today’s training involved more rope work including short-roping, fixed lines as well as some pretend ice climbing. The scenario today was to avoid all commercial paths on this glacier and try to find our own safe way up to the mini plateau area before the ice fall. This was much harder than it sounds due to the fact that there are three guiding companies all running commercial operations on this glacier and they have all chopped in paths on the best and most accessible parts of the glacier. This meant that we had to travel way off the beaten path and through some really spicy terrain before making it onto the flatter area up top. I found this to be rather challenging especially when having to balance client safety with providing a smooth and enjoyable tour. This is really something that will only come with further practice and further familiarity with the glacier you are working on.
Once we had all finished our guiding practice our next task was to perform a vertical stretcher rescue of one of our instructors. The scenario was that someone had fallen somewhere and suffered a serious injury that required a stretcher to haul them out. The rescue teams consisted of two hauling teams, with a third hauling team who attached onto the stretcher once the patient’s head was over the edge. There was a rescuer and assistant rescuer who would rappel down and secure the patient to prevent any further injury and most importantly to keep them from getting hypothermia! The main rescuer will then attach themselves to the stretcher to ensure the patient is properly secured and kept safe on the way up. Finally we had a supervisor who coordinated all movements from the rescuers below and the hauling teams up top. Things worked out well for us and it only took 40 minutes from start to finish to get everything done!
Upon completion of this, we had a quick debrief of the rescue before making our way back to the bus as quick as possible before we got too wet from the rain!
Day 4: Results!
After much stressing and nervousness as well as forays into parts of glaciers that I normally would never go, I got the good news that I passed the course! Not much else to write here other than I’m quite pleased that I did it and glad that I learned a lot of new skills along the way.
Photo Gallery
Of course it wouldn’t be a blog post without some choice pics of my time there.
My Nordic Life 
Hey Josh,
Great blog posting. I really felt I was there with you after reading your adventures. Well done!
Thanks daddio 8)
GREAT BLOG…GREAT PIX…..GREAT GRANDSON………
Thanks Grandad!
Awesome pics and reportage! Congratulazioni!😃Crevasse extractions and clients who cannot complete a climb?? I can play the guinea pig without any effort😬
Thanks a lot!
Congratulations and well done Josh. See you soon.
Thank you Murt! Hope you’re enjoying your time off.