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
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.
- Accommodation included
- Guiding fee
- Transport during the trip
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
Man
5
Climbing with guide Guillaume was absolutely a highlight of my 2-week Europe vacation. Originally, we were planning on climbing in the Calanques, but the park was closed due to wind and fire danger. Guillaume chose another amazing location (Pic de Bretagne) based on my climbing abilities and preferences and kindly offered train station pick-up and hotel drop off, which I appreciated very much. The multi-pitch route we did was not only fun but also the right amount of challenge, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The communication from the team (Gauthier) was prompt and clear—highly recommend!
Maxine
5
Luis Silva was a great climbing guide and belayer! He taught me how to do moves that were difficult and encouraged me to try routes that were challenging for me! Because of his encouragement, I managed to complete these routes! I really enjoyed the climbs and completed 8 routes in the Sesimbra/Azoia area. The weather was perfect, no direct sun and cool enough to enjoy the climbs. Explore-Share made booking an outdoor climbing experience in Lisbon extremely easy. Luis, our guide, was fantastic, and the platform’s organization was flawless.
Valeriya
5
You’re simply the best!!! :))) Explore-Share made everything easy and stress-free. Will definitely use again.
Joshua
5
We had Léo as a guide for our day climb in Fonty. We were blessed with a knowledgeable, warm, and instructive guide. Communication with Léo and Ivan was smooth and swift. Explore-Share was excellent in arranging everything for our day climb. The communication was quick, and the platform was easy to use, making our adventure stress-free.
Cami
5
Patrick was a great guide. He took us on an intermediate Via Ferrata at Passo Sella. Renato was quick to respond with any outreach on the Explore-Share platform. The booking process was straightforward, and once Patrick was confirmed, all went well. It was a wonderful experience, and I’d highly recommend the platform.
4.8
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