Hiking Iceland’s Laugavegur Trail: the route and its natural history

The November 18 Mountaineers meeting will feature a talk by Gwendolyn Gallagher & Don Krier on their adventure in Iceland.

The Laugavegur trail is Iceland's most famous hiking route through the southern highlands. The route is known for diverse and colorful terrain, ranging from mountains of colorfully altered rhyolitic tuffs to obsidian black sand plains, with views of icecaps and glaciers, hydrothermal springs, lava fields, deep river canyons, and glacial valleys and moraines. The trail starts in Landmannalaugar and ends in Þórsmörk. In this presentation, Gwendolyn and Don will explain the route and logistics, and describe the natural history of this region.

The speakers’ experiences include backpacking, mountain biking, climbing, mountaineering, trail ultra-running, and backcountry and alpine skiing. Together, they have enjoyed some epic mountain summits including Mt. Hood, Mt. Rainier, Cotopaxi, Mont Blanc, and the Matterhorn. Both speakers love the outdoors because of their shared passion in natural history; Gwendolyn is a biologist, and Don is a geologist. So, a summit is exhilarating, but nature observed along the journey is what fulfills them

We welcome all to this Mountaineers’ meeting. While our meetings are usually on the fourth Tuesday of the month, this meeting will be on the third Tuesday because of the Thanksgiving holiday. The social hour, with cookies, begins at 6:45 PM and the program at 7:00 PM. The presentation will be in-person at Los Alamos Nature Center; the slides will be live-streamed on Zoom. Registration is required to Zoom and recommended for in-person – we would love to see your smiling face. Registration details will be posted once they are available.

Wild backcountry in Iceland