Author Archive for: step

Entries by step

About Sólheimajökull

In recent days I had heard multiple remarks about how access to Sólheimajökull was getting increasingly precarious, and a number of people in the guide community asked me of my opinion. So when I had a day off earlier this week and the weather was promising, I figured why not go and have a look? […]

700 Days

It will soon be two years since the tragic incident on Breiðamerkurjökull that eventually led to the formation of Fagráð and my nomination as its chairman. Time for a review.

I should add that not all of this work was in my capacity of the chairperson of Fagráð – in fact much of it has been strictly self funded. But I think seeing it all in context made the most sense

Incident Report – 2026-03-18

I was part of an ICE-SAR response to an incident on Falljökull last Wednesday. As always when something happens in a professional guiding context, it is worth to summarize observations and look for lessons to be learned. What was missed, or went wrong, for this accident to occur? Where can the guide community improve to […]

Safety Plan Update

I’ve just completed the annual review of my Safety Plan and uploaded a new, revised version. In addition to some minor changes (wording clarified, spelling errors), I have added sections on using a shared, site-specific risk assessment platform where available, and a safety plan module for tours leading over floating ice covers. The shared, site-specific […]

No more availability in October & November

Due to additional responsibilities with the Vatnajökull National Park – I have been tasked with helping to assess and monitor the ice caves in the nearby glaciers – my calendar is now fully booked for October and November.

Safety Plan Update – Version 4.1.1

As a consequence of the accident in late August, I decided to include an explicit section on overhead hazards in my safety plan. As always, it is public and you can check it out here (the entry in the menu above will always refer to the most current version; this one is a permanent link […]

The State of Ice Caves for the 2024/25 Winter

As we are coming into September, it is still a bit too early to talk specifically about which ice caves will be accessible – and worth visiting – next winter. The glacier will continue to change in significant ways over the next weeks and may open up new opportunities or remove others in the progress. […]

Safety on Glacier Excursions

I have received an incredible amount of very positive feedback about my recent essay, and it motivated me to address some of the questions that came up both in direct response to it and in other discussions. This article is intended primarily for visitors who are concerned about various planned activities, and deals specifically with […]

Thoughts on recent events

The tragic collapse of an ice cave left us mourning the loss of a life, a family torn apart and many lives irrevocably changed. I have just returned from two days on the site of the incident, and staring at the computer screen I keep asking myself the same question again and again: How on […]

Training Day #3 – Solutions (kind of)

I guess by now everybody who was planning to go through the little homework assignment has done so by now… Each of the problems I posted was based on a situation I have encountered, either on my own tours. Estimating the accurate location of an unknown point by using bearings from / to other, known […]