Your Snowkiting Trip

Nearly 1000km of soft powder snow as your personal playground, and no lift pass required!

Lay out your kite and lines on the ground parallel to the wind with some snow piled on the trailing edge, clip into your board or skis and attach the chicken loop to your harness & you're ready to snowkite. Now give the lines a gentle tug and fill the foil with air, the kite will begin to rise as you steer it across the edge of the wind to the meridian position above your head. Bring the kite round in a large ‘S', just as in kitesurfing, and point it where you want to go & the kite will pull you to your feet and suddenly your gliding across the snow using nothing but the forces of nature.

Use the edge of the board or skis to take a hard edge in the snow and point yourself upwind, you will find you can take an angle of about 30 degrees. Use this technique to tack and you will be able to travel anywhere.

Take a spare kite on your back in case the wind changes, and with a GPS, compass and shortwave radio in your pocket you are ready to travel anywhere the feeling takes you. Why not take the 15km journey to the summit and stop there for lunch before freeriding back down with your kites in the backpack? Alternatively you can just practice getting airborne, or go for a high speed run and compare maximum speeds recorded on the GPS; speeds in excess of 67kph are regularly recorded, and it is not unusual to clock up 100km distance during a good day.

Snowkiter pitch this tour as being predominantly about the snowkiting, but on those days when the wind (or just fatigue) prevent you heading out to the glacier there a number of distractions to choose from*:

Simply driving across Iceland's barren backcountry areas is a treat, taking in the incredible bleak expanses of landscape. Explore Thingviller, where the two continental plates meet and also the seat of Iceland's first parliament, or take an excursion and explore some of the cavernous lava caves nearby.

Most evenings are spent back at the cabin, in the hot tub, drinking beers, eating, sleeping, preparing kit for the following day and watching snowkiting videos.

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Itinerary / Highlights

Friday:-
Everyone is arriving on the Friday, most on the afternoon Icelandair flight. The best way into town is using the Flybus that leaves from right outside the terminal and takes you all the way to downtown Reykjavik (about 50 minutes journey). Before you exit the baggage reclaim don't forget to pick up your duty free though, beer and other drinks will be less than half you will pay at the supermarket so it's well worth loading up with what you can. Mobile SIM cards are also available if you plan on making a lot of calls.

When the Flybus arrives at the coach station make sure to ask the driver to drop you at the Hotel Leifur Ericsson. The coach you are on may continue there or you may have to swap to another. Your reservations are all made at the hotel and all you should need to do is give your name.

The hotel is a small place and if everyone hasn't met already on the way we will easily find each other. Everyone usually takes a bit of a wander around town to check out Reykjavik, then later we head out for some food and a few drinks downtown (sometimes becoming more than a few…)

Saturday:-
Come the morning we'll meet as early as possible outside the hotel to load up all of the gear for the long trip out to the glacier. We'll stop en-route for people to pick up any hire boards or skis from the hire shop and also to do the communal shop. We would urge people to have as much sorted as they can, i.e, currency, packing etc, as we are always pushed for time on the Saturday.

We arrive at the cabins and make ourselves comfortable there, light the barbeque, crack open some beers and check the wind reports for the Sunday.

Monday to Thursday:-
Snowkiting!

Friday:-
Home ;-(

Wind & Snow

The wind stats at the Langjarkull Glacier are generally very good and you can expect 6 - 15 knots on the majority of days. The glacier often generates Katabatic winds, flowing down the glacier toward the barren lava fields beneath it, although prevailing winds will predominate for the majority of the time. The wind is often higher toward the summit, allowing flyers to position themselves wherever they feel comfortable: use the lower slopes to get comfortable with the feeling up being hauled uphill by the wind and then head toward the summit for a real blast. It often takes a couple of hours to reach the summit, but speeds in excess of 70kph have been recorded en-route! Due to the lack of obstacles, and the nature of the Katabatic effect, extraordinarily smooth winds can sometimes be experienced, these are often combined with warmer weather and give rise to the occasional 'perfect session'.

During the summer season the glacier offers vast tracts of soft powder snow. This deep powder is actually very forgiving, and allows for a more comfortable landing than you might think for a glacier.

Other Details

Accommodation Details

Out near the glacier you will be staying as part of a group of up to 12 people in two or three timber cabins. The exact type and location of the cabin varies, but generally they consist of 3-shared rooms with bunk accommodation and a large communal living area. The cabins are usually located within 20 - 40 minutes drive from the glacier, and about 1 - 1.5 hours from Reykjavik.

Cabins come equipped with large geo-thermally heated hot-tubs (so don´t forget your trunks!)

The rooms are shared and there is a bathroom to each cabin. Duvets and pillows are provided but please remember that you need to bring you own sheets, duvet covers and pillows as we are not able to provide these at present.

At the end of the week we have to give the cabins a good clean and tidy up before we leave.

Catering:-
Food is purchased and prepared on a communal basis on the basis of everyone mucking in however they can. We collect a food kitty at the beginning of the trip and make a large group shop on the way out to the glacier. The kitty will be 10000ISK each, approximately £70. Note that the kitty does not include for beer!

Breakfasts are usually prepared by whoever takes the initiative, and lunch is your own responsibility to prepare and take for the day. Dinner is a much more involved affair and a few people usually opt to take charge of cooking up a bit of a barbecue feast.