Hiking the terrifying mountain called THE HORN in Iceland

The Horn mountain is located west of Iceland, on the so-called Snæfellsnes Peninsula. This mountain fascinated me From the first drive from the airport to Grundarfjörður, where I worked. It truly looks just like its name suggests — like a Horn — and feels like a gateway to the Snæfellsnes region.

The problem with working in foreign countries is that you don't always have access to a car, and often it's hard to go anywhere. And when you finally do have a car, the weather is usually terrible — and so it goes, again and again. That’s why I saved this mountain for the very last weeks of my stay in Iceland when I finally had a bit more luck with the conditions.

An interesting thing is that the trail is only marked on maps up to halfway up the mountain, which surprised me a bit. But I thought — let’s give it a try and see what happens. The path starts at this parking lot.

The beginning of the trail is very easy to follow — you walk along a well-trodden path with a view of a lake that's covered by dried lava from past volcanic eruptions. You also have to cross many small streams (if you're going to Iceland, don’t skimp on good shoes — seriously).

The real challenge begins when you go around the corner and enter a valley where the path starts to climb steeply. Along the way, make sure to look left and right — there are plenty of interesting rock formations shaped by years of weathering. You’ll also follow a small stream that flows out of the rock, and right there is where the marked trail on the map ends.

But the reason is simple — from here, you step onto loose volcanic gravel, and you can make your trail anywhere you want. I stopped here for a while because the wind picked up and I wasn’t sure whether I should continue to the top or not. 🌬️

It was also getting quite cloudy, and I thought to myself — why push it if there's no guarantee of a view anyway?

In the end, the feeling that I’d regret not going all the way convinced me. So I tightened my boots, zipped up my jacket, and set off into the worsening conditions. 💪

After a while, I reached the base of the final section — a sort of plateau with a view of the lake on the other side (see the first photo 📸).

At this place I had a brilliant idea — to take out the drone and try to capture something with the little beast. HAHA — I barely lifted it a meter and it was instantly blown 5 meters away from me 😅 so I landed it immediately and packed it back into my backpack. From then on, it stayed at the very bottom of the backpack.

I moved on to the last obstacle — a 5-meter rock face I had to climb. Yep, a proper scramble on all fours… just without a rope. 🧗‍♂️

Nothing too dangerous, though — there were plenty of handholds and ledges, you just had to be extra careful.

Surprisingly, at the top, a small path was waiting for me — you could walk along it easily. The summit was about 4 meters wide and 40 meters long. Luckily, the wind was blowing from the other side, so when I lay down in the grass, it didn’t attack me directly, and I could keep my body temperature pretty well. 😌

What I didn’t estimate well, though, was the time. I reached the top about an hour and a half before sunset, and once again I had this inner battle — stay or go? But then the clouds started to clear, and I knew I had to wait because this was going to be hell of a show on THE HORN. 🌄

And then it came — the golden, almost reddish light spread across the whole landscape in front of me… and from this mountain, you can see far! Honestly, I didn’t even know what to photograph first 😄 But eventually I found a good spot, and of course — I had to take a photo of myself with that stunning sunset behind me.

If you're into a bit more adventure, don’t be afraid to hike this mountain — it’s a safer climb than the famous Kirkjufell on the Snaefellsnes peninsula. ✅⛰️