12 Reasons To Visit Iceland's Ski Country

Otherworldly views, untouched powder, and some pretty adorable horses—despite its isolated location, there's much to love about the northern tip of Iceland.

By CNT Editors

Photography by Christopher Sturman

October 27, 2015

The Tröllaskagi peninsula is some 50 miles long and has been likened to a snow globe at the edge of the Arctic. Mountain guides, like those pictured from Eleven Experience, are taking advantage of Iceland's virgin mountains, long season, and the ability to heli-ski late into the night.
Tom Robbins makes a descent of Heidi's Run, outside Siglufjörður, while guides from Eleven Experience watch from the clifftops. Read about his experience on the northern shore.

To get to Siglufjörður, a small fishing town on the brink of heli-skiing heaven, adventurers must make a four hour drive northeast from Reykjavík along Iceland's Highway 1.
Siglufjörður is near the very tip of Tröllaskagi—accessible only by long, narrow tunnels that burrow beneath the mountains.

Jökull Bergmann, the founder of Arctic Heli Skiing and one of the founding fathers of expedition skiing in Iceland, grew up here and uses his grandfather's farm to house guests. A trip with Bergmann is a guarantee that you're in good hands—his full name literally translates to Glacier Mountain Man.
Arctic Heli Skiing using lodges like Klængshóll Lodge, a former farm, to house guests. Meals are eaten together around the kitchen table but the lodge has developed more modern touches in the last four years, like a yoga studio, and even an après-ski lounge in an old barn.

The lonely road to Deplar Farm, which Eleven Experience is converting into a guest house. By the 2016 season, it will be the most lavish lodge ever seen in northern Iceland, complete with an indoor/outdoor swimming pool, a spa with six treatment rooms, a theater, a dozen suites, and heli-skiing from the door.
Around 1,200 people live in Siglufjörður full time. Visitors usually roll through during the heli-ski season which runs from March through June. Peak season is May, when the conditions are excellent.

Siglufjörður was once Iceland’s boomtown and was the world capital of the herring industry. Now a sleepy fishing town, relics like the Herring Era Museum, where visitors can learn the finer points of fish oil extraction, remind visitors of the more bustling past.
The area isn't exclusively for skiers. This public pool sits along the sea in Hofsós, on the western shore of Tröllaskagi.

Hvítserkur Rock is about 125 miles west of Siglufjörður. The area is home to one of the largest seal-colonies in Iceland and rumor has it that the rock is in fact a petrified troll.
The road to Siglufjörður travels along the coast of the northern peninsular and offers incredible views of the varied Icelandic topography.