Trekking in the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve

8 days of hiking in the Nature Reserve of Hornstrandir, in the North West of Island, guided by Antoine, UIMLA certified mountain guide.

11 Days

Jul, Aug

Description

The Hornstrandir is a peninsula located in far northwestern Iceland. A strait of only 300 km separates us from Greenland. This is also the wildest coastal portion of the island, since the last farms were abandoned in the 1950’s. The ideal hiking site!

The absence of grazing sheeps has allowed the vegetation to regain the ground and many bird species are present, therefore attracting a large arctic foxes population. These are tame and can be easily approached.

The next departure will be from July 4th to 15th. An 11-day trip including 8 days of hiking.

We will leave by car straight from Keflavik airport and will take the long way round to rally in 2 days the small northwestern town of Isafjörður. After a boat transfer, we will explore this region linking fjords, high plateaus, glacial valleys, lagoons… We will walk at a calm pace, in favor of relatively short steps to allow time to explore the area without our large bags. There are few trails, therefore we will chart our path through the birch and dwarf willow “forests”.

Each evening we will choose a nice bivouac near a river or a beach, with a view of the midnight sun setting on the Arctic Ocean…

This is an autonomy trek in isolation conditions, there are only a few emergency shelters in the region.

The stages will be of 5 to 8 hours of walking (10 – 20 km/day, maximum altitude change 500 m).

Accommodation will only be in tents – except the night back at Reykjavik.

We will each have our backpack and we will distribute the shared equipment and food for 4-5 days, a supply being provided halfway through. The use of ultra light equipment allows to keep the weight of the bag around 12-15 kg (as long as you have a reasonable amount of personal belongings!).

Prior autonomy hiking experience is desirable and/or good physical condition and the habit of living in “open air”.

We will go by car (2 days) and return to Reykjavik with a domestic flight.

I would be thrilled to introduce you to this magnificent region in Iceland. I invite you to contact me so we can discuss and plan this great adventure together.

Price includes

Accommodation included
Guiding fee
Transport during the trip

About the guide

Antoine

Mountain Leader

I have traveled around Iceland for more than 20 years, in winter and summer. I supervised groups while working for different agencies. I have been a certified mountain leader since June 2014. I propose independent circuits that put forward the most secret parts of this island, which is traveled more and more.
I mostly wish to make you discover the unknown Iceland. Nowadays, people are more and more infatuated with this country, and many large tours propose this destination in their catalogue, but they hardly ever go anywhere else than the famous places. I prefer to take my clients to places as spectacular, but less touristic. This is why I take the wild chance to propose two treks in autonomy where you have to carry your belongings, since it's the only way we can explore some of the hidden parts of Iceland. I still think that this type of traveling has more advantages than disadvantages: progressing off-path, freedom to move around without having to book a place in a refuge, bivouacs in exceptional sites,... all that without needing to be a sports elite or ultra trained travelers.
To vary my offerings I also propose a circuit in which we move around in all-terrain vehicles, in 3 or 4 zones that we can discover through daily hikings.
Finally, I give special importance to the quality of the meals which I prepare using Icelandic produce (legumes produced in geothermic heated greenhouses, fish, sheep meat, diary produce). Even for the treks where the weight of the food we carry is critical, I propose some original meals based on dried fish, "caviar", cheese... to switch from the monotony of the lyophilised meals.

Certificates

UIMLA

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