While we had previously visited Sólheimajökull, today was the first time we hiked on part of it. We met with two guides, Gummi and Odur, who showed us how to attach crampons to our feet and helped us navigate the treacherous terrain. We tried not to get distracted by the beauty of the landscape and started screwing in sliced-up orange shirts in the ice to locate the ground control points in our pictures (a location whose coordinates we recorded). Naturally, this brought us some attention as the average tourist does not bring a drill. Part of the group separated and went farther ahead to screw in the shirts and record the coordinates while the rest flew the drones; Charlie went farther up that glacier than he ever had before, which made him quite joyful. Overall, we had a very productive day and a fantastic time.

Today, we woke up early to catch a ferry to Heimaey, a small island off Iceland’s southern coast. We went to Eldheimar, a museum about Eldfell‘s 1973 volcanic eruption and its consequences on Heimaey’s population. Some of us then hiked Eldfell and Helgafell, the volcano right next to Eldfell, which allowed us to find some cool rocks. This was a free day, meaning we didn’t have to work on our projects, so everyone went their own way to observe the island and ended up with unique stories about our time there!