What an amazing adventure! We spent the afternoon (5-6 hours) with Claudia and Han. Our group was quite small (just 5 in total, us 3 and another couple). Claudia shared her in-depth knowledge of the Solheimajokull Glacier with us so we could truly appreciate this natural wonder. We felt well prepared with our equipment and she taught us how to move around carefully on the glacier. (Unless you have steel-tipped hiking boots you will need to rent boots from them for the ice climbing - yes, they have them there to rent on location.)
We each got to test out our new climbing skills on a short wall (approx 20') and then later on Claudia found a great spot to try our skills again - we were lowered into a moulin and climbed out - absolutely amazing to be somewhere no one has ever been and see below the ice. We had to use our new skills to climb back up and out - it was simply thrilling! We took tons of photos - our best pics are on my brother and my son's cameras but I'll post a few that I took.

A couple of tips -
*There are restroom facilities at the base for a small fee (good to know bc once you're on the glacier there's no place to 'go'. )

*When we first arrived we didn't notice the big yellow bus in the tremendous parking lot - that's their 'office' that contains all the equipment and where you get set up before your excursion.

*Bring layers & bring good gloves that you can grip with - you need to be able to hold the handle of the pickaxe.

* Bring sunblock

Booked the hike for me and my 12 year old daughter directly on the Arctic Adventures website. Cost was around $90 UDD for me and $60 for my 12-year old.

Met in the Solheimajokull parking lot next to the yellow bus. Super easy to get to. Marco checked us in, did a briefing and got us geared up. Our group size was eight people. They provided helmets, crampons, and ice axe, and a harness (although the harness was only in case a rescue was needed, we were never roped in.) We did the 15-20 minute walk up to he head of the glacier, put on the crampons and followed him up through an established track onto the glacier. There were other guides working on chipping out steps and setting some anchors for ropes to make it easier for groups to wind though the wavy icefall on the sides of the glacier.

After some twisting and turning we got up on to the main ice sheet. We spent about an hour with Marco walking around the ice sheet. He was great, pointing out various features, talking about how glaciers form, flow, and move, the impact of climate change, etc. He was super friendly and professional and we felt very safe under his watch. Total time for the hike from start to finish was about 2.5 hours.

Really a unique and memorable experience! Great value for the money.

This was one of the highlights of my trip to Iceland, Best tour to see beautiful Katla Ice Cave in summer. Words cannot describe the colors of the ice formations on the cave and surrounding rivers and snow and gravel roads to get there. Our driver was a hero. On that day he drove us through rain and slushy ice. You have to walk through the snow to reach the Ice Cave. Literally like a scene from Star Wars. You see the Blue Ice Cave from a far. Magical and Beautiful,