FEBRUARY 2025 · ADVENTURE
Iceland — After the Storm
Iceland
The red alert covered most of Iceland. Winds hit 140mph. We didn't stay indoors — superjeeps into the highlands, into the eye of it.
When the storm subsided we walked out into what it had left behind: sky cleared, the landscape making itself visible again after two days of nothing.
First stop was a geothermal area — turquoise hot springs in the snow, steam rising from multiple vents at once, the mineral deposits orange and rust-coloured around the pool edges. Someone in a red jacket and yellow pack stood beside a steaming pool. The scale of the landscape behind them made them very small. A geysir surrounded by mineral crust, the steam rising straight up in the post-storm stillness. The orange warning sign on the plateau edge: keep out, essentially, in Icelandic and English.
When the storm subsided we walked out into what it had left behind: sky cleared, the landscape making itself visible again after two days of nothing.
Iceland — February 2025
Then a glacial cave. Brilliant blue ice — the interior of a glacier, the light filtering through the ice wall in deep cold colour. We were inside the ice. The blue it produces in photographs is accurate. It's actually that colour.
The birch woodland: gnarled bare trees, branches white with frost, a frozen stream winding through them. Iceland has birch woodland the way England has scrub — low, tough, distributed in hollows and protected valleys. The stream was mostly frozen. A waterfall further along had ice formations built up over the cascade, the water still moving underneath.
The river in the valley was running hard — rushing water, foam and spray, the snowmelt adding to the flow. Hikers in bright cold-weather jackets crossed the frozen stream in single file. On the lava field: the same colours, different scale.
A barren plateau with a do-not-enter sign beneath the snow-covered mountains. Someone has been ignoring it.
Brilliant blue ice formations in glacial cave, South Iceland
Hikers in bright jackets walking past snow-capped mountain in rural Iceland
Group of hikers in colorful winter gear on narrow road after storm
Geothermal area with orange warning sign, snowy plateau and mountains beyond
Rocky landscape with mineral-stained geothermal features in geysir area
Red jacket and yellow pack near steaming geothermal pool in Iceland
Turquoise hot spring amid misty geothermal landscape with scattered steam vents
Pale blue thermal pool surrounded by mineral deposits and steam, Iceland
Barren plateau with do-not-enter sign beneath snow-covered mountains
Snow-covered mountain beneath grey sky with brown moorland and stream below
Hikers in bright colors crossing dark lava field toward distant mountain
Hikers in cold weather gear crossing frozen stream through barren woodland
Frozen stream winding through gnarled birch forest, Iceland
Hiker with backpack heading toward group on frozen stream in moorland
Icy stream flowing through twisted, bare birch woodland landscape
Frozen waterfall with snow-covered rocks and cascading ice formation
Hikers beside turbulent river with snowy mountains and sparse woodland beyond
Rushing river with foam and spray amid rocky landscape and low vegetation
Solo hiker with backpack on trail near hikers and thawing stream
Turbulent grey river flowing through dark valley beneath overcast sky
Cascading waterfall with ice formations and rushing water in winter