Snæfellsjökull

At the far western tip of the Snæfellsnes peninsula, a single cone of ice-capped rock rises to 1,446 metres straight from the sea. Snæfellsjökull is a stratovolcano some 700,000 years old, and its symmetry is what makes it unforgettable: a white dome that hangs over lava fields, black beaches and fishing hamlets, and on clear days shows itself across Faxaflói bay to Reykjavík, about 120 km away, like a cloud that refuses to move.

The volcano has been quiet since its last eruption around 200 CE, but it is not considered extinct, and the lava fields and small craters around its base tell of a long, active past. The glacier that gives the mountain its name is shrinking fast. It covered some 16 square kilometres in 1946, about 14 in 1999 and only 10 to 11 by 2008, and in August 2012 the summit was recorded free of ice for the first time. Seeing it now means seeing a glacier in the middle of its disappearance.

The mountain owes its fame abroad to Jules Verne. In his Journey to the Center of the Earth, published in 1864, the professor and his nephew descend into the crater of Snæfellsjökull and emerge, after an epic underground journey, from the volcano of Stromboli in Italy. Icelandic tradition has long invested the mountain with its own power, and it remains a place people come to for more than the view. The glacier and its surroundings are protected as Snæfellsjökull National Park, which covers the western tip of the peninsula around the mountain.

In summer the saddle near the top can be reached by walking, while the true summit calls for technical ice climbing. For most visitors the best experience is the circuit of the peninsula itself, watching the dome change with the light from one side of the mountain to the other.

Getting there

Snæfellsjökull stands at the end of the Snæfellsnes peninsula in western Iceland. The international gateway is Keflavík (KEF), about 107 km away in a straight line across Faxaflói bay; the nearest domestic airport, Ísafjörður (IFJ), is on the far side of Breiðafjörður and is not a practical approach. Most visitors drive from the Reykjavík area around the bay and along the peninsula towards its western tip.