Day-by-day trail itinerary

Laugavegur + Fimmvörðuháls (to Skógar): 6-day itinerary

The trail leaves Landmannalaugar straight into the Laugahraun lava field, where the tread threads between blocks of black lava under bright green moss, then climbs onto the plateau steadily rather than steeply over the first five kilometres. The surface turns to pumice, ash and loose obsidian, glassy black chips that skate underfoot on the steeper pitches, with fumaroles steaming beside the path and a hot spring at Stórihver. From there to about km 16 the walking stays high and open across a rolling waste of old snow, dark obsidian and stained rhyolite, dipping through a run of ravines where meltwater streams have cut in beneath the snow. This is the coldest and least sheltered ground on the route, and those ravine crossings are why it is slower than the distance suggests: the snow rots from below, so a crust thins without showing it. The stretch finishes with the long stony clatter down off Jökultungur, steep enough to want careful feet, with Tindfjallajökull, Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull all in view on a clear day, onto green moss and flat ground at the bottom.