Sólheimajökull means "home of the sun glacier" in Icelandic. They do that here - name things by stringing words together.
Sólheimajökull is an outlet glacier of a larger icecap called Mýrdalsjökull in southern Iceland.
Just in case you forgot, Iceland can kill you. And it will if you're stupid enough to climb up on to a glacier, without an experienced guide and appropriate gear. (Which we did see a couple of guys try to do.)
Luckily, we're not stupid.
Hiking up the side of a glacier has to be one of the most amazing things I've ever done. In my entire life.
Maria, our guide with Arctic Adventures, was amazing. She got us up and down again - safely.
Plus, while we were there we learned a lot about Iceland's glaciers. She showed the kids how to use their ice axes to chop into the ice looking for rainbows. And she explained why parts of the glacier are black. It's ash from the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. (Don't ask me how to pronounce that one, all I know is that it literally translates to "island mountain glacier.") It was the volcano that spewed out so much ash it halted almost all European air travel for six days.
It saddens me to know that scientists predict all of Iceland's glaciers will be gone in 150 years.
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