Lake Langisjór and the crater of doom

I am a big Lord of the Rings fan. But never did I think I would recreate Sam’s and Frodo’s perilous journey to a volcanic crater. As you might imagine, I didn’t really, but I find it a little funny to compare my recent trip to lake Langisjór to the epic adventure of Frodo and Sam. A volcanic crater of doom was involved, and I had to hike a long way with my companion. Unfortunately,  that is where the comparison ends. It is not like we were trying to destroy a ring of power or something and we met no orcs.

I am going on an adventure

It was my first trip to Langisjór, and I was excited. My great friend and master photographer Martin´Schulz generously invited me to tag along on an epic journey around the southern Icelandic highlands. Langisjór was our first destination, but we also had many other great places to visit. These included the lonely mountain Mælifell, the stunning Mt. Öldufell, Rauðibotn, and its neighboring Hólmsárlón. Near Vatnajökull glacier was the majestic canyon on Múlagljúfur, another place I hoped to see on our journey. Unfortunately, my bad photography is featured in this article. Still, you can experience Martin’s excellent Iceland photography in articles on Kirkjufell, Brúarfoss, the eruption at Holuhraun, his Iceland travel book, and the Martin Schulz photography page.

Destination Langisjór

On the first day of our trip, on the 20 of August, the plan was to drive up to the ranger’s hut of Langisjór and hike some six kilometers (3.7 miles) to a crater and pitch our tent there. There we would wake up early and experience a glorious sunrise. The inspiration for this plan came from people online who have done this very thing and recommended the experience highly. The weather forecast was for clear skies, little wind, and cold weather. In the morning, we could expect to wake up to brisk 3 degrees Celsius (37.4 Fahrenheit). The weather forecast for the next few days predicted that it would start to snow up there.

Going off the grid, almost

Lake Langisjór is vast. The meaning of the word Langisjór is “Long Sea,” which is apt for this 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) long and 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) vast lake. Since it is close to the southwestern part of the Vatnajökull glacier at 670 meters (2.200 feet), the weather there is highly changeable, as we will find out. There is little or no cell phone reception; Langisjór is far from civilization.

Masterchef in action

Our trip from Reykjavik, where we started early in the morning, went well. On the way, Martin confidently crossed rivers and streams on the Toyota Hilux he had rented from Lotus Car Rental. After a drive through the lovely valley of Þjórsárdalur and a stop at Hrauneyjar highland center and hotel, we arrived at Langisjór in the afternoon. The first order of business was to have dinner. I had bought burgers for our trip, and I fired up my Weber portable BBQ to cook them. Everything tastes better outdoors on vacation, and these burgers were no exception.

Heading out for the night

Then it was time to start our hike toward our planned camping ground. We had to be economical with what we could bring since we would have to carry everything on our way. We crammed our tents, sleeping bags, and mattresses in our backpacks.

The wind was picking up, and it was getting pretty cold for our evening adventure. Therefore I layered up and brought my thick coat to prepare for a freezing night and morning. I had my woollen sweater on and wind- and waterproof trousers. We decided to ditch food and bring only Appelsín (Icelandic orange soda) and water with us. There was no room for food; the plan was to hike back in the morning and have breakfast at the Ranger’s hut.

Get those layers on, take them off, repeat every five minutes

It is always the same when you hike here in Iceland; you constantly add and remove layers as the weather is highly changeable. You may take a turn and all of a sudden face strong headwinds, take another turn, and it becomes stiflingly hot as you are in shelter from all wind. Our hike along the beautiful Langisjór in the evening was delightful, though. although we were burdened with a lot of luggage, we made good progress. We could follow trails towards our destination, which either took us to the water’s edge or up on the slopes above the lake. There is very little level ground, at least on this way along Lake Langisjór.

The fantastic Fögrufjöll

On our way we passed the beautiful Fögrufjöll (which literally means beautiful mountains). These tuff mountains are covered in moss and the main one is the impressive Sveinstindur. I would love to ascend that mountain one day just to experience the incredible view it must have.

Fagralón in the twilight

We marveled at the beautiful Fagralón (The Beautiful lagoon) right next to the Langisjór lagoon. It was just incredible in the twilight. The sky was getting dimmer, and the moon and stars that started to appear promised a stunningly beautiful night.

Reaching the crater of doom

Things continued to go well until we reached the crater where we intended to pitch our tent. It was a little climb up to the crater, complicated by loose rocks and sandy ground. When I reached the top of the hole, a strong wind greeted me with a bonus of sand thrown in my face. There was no way to pitch our tent with the solid wind like that. There was not much hold in the sandy ground, and the wind picked up strength. The tent got flattened by the wind, even if we used rocks to brace it.

Mother nature wins again

There was no purpose in arguing with mother nature. We had no choice but to turn around. I was not crazy happy about having to walk back in pitch darkness, cutting across steep slopes above the lake.

However, Martin is a much more experienced traveler than I am, and I handed myself a strong headlamp after he had put one on himself. The walk back was easy in the intense light of these headlamps.

It would have been a nightmare to stick to the right path without those lights. Instead, we made steady progress and could watch the tremendous night sky. Stars lighted it up, and the moon was a perfect crescent. Silvery threads of the Aurora Borealis created a thin veil over this silvery display of celestial wonders.

Staying at Hotel Hilux

We had no choice but to sleep in the car; I quickly dubbed this “Hotel Hilux.” The night was freezing, and as we reclined in our sleeping bags in the passenger seats for the night, we both reached for our thick overcoats. I was convinced I would never sleep this way. However, this was my last thought before losing consciousness. When we woke up to a frigid and sunny morning, Langisjór glistened in its cold beauty.

Saying goodbye to Langisjór

We got out of the car and I daresay that this night in Hotel Hilux resulted in one of my worst hair days which is saying a lot. Stiff but rested. We headed to the ranger’s hut, where we had Swiss Miss and bread. When we told the ranger about our nighttime adventure, he said that this was nothing to even mention. He had to start very early to assist people whose tent had been blown away some four kilometers from where they had attempted to camp. We realized that we had it easy compared to those unlucky people. We said goodbye to the lovely Langisjór lagoon and headed for more highlands adventures

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