Kirkjufell (16.08.2018)

Having travelled along the Ring road for some days, climbing Kirkjufell (m a.s.l) seemed to be a natural thing to do before heading further around the Snæfellsnes peninsula. A good warm-up was to take a better meal at at the excellent Bjargarsteinn Mathús with a good view towards the mountain) the evening before – and to camp at the campground in Grundarfjörður (also with a view).

Kikjufell is for many known as the Arrowhead Mountian in the Game of Thrones series (season 6 and 7).

We parked at the parking for Kirkjufellsfoss since the more natural choice at Háls was marked with a "no parking" sign. From there we hiked about 100 m along Snæfellsvegur (54) up to Háls, and continued on the left side of a fenced pasture.

Some writers claim that the route to up Kirkjufell is a bit difficult to find and that one easily could get confused by the many sheep trails i the area. We, however, had few problems finding the route. Notice that most of the route zigzags on the western side of the ridge, except from two places, one in the beginning and one in the end, where the route shortly is on the eastern side of the ridge or at the ridge itself. The GPS track (below) can be used, but the google terrain model for the area stinks, so it doesen´t look right when these are combined. Better local map services may be found here:

• map.is
• jaa.is

In addition, small barriers and cairns are put up to (hopefully) help you. It is, anyway, important to be awake so you don´t get lost and find yourself in a steep grassy hill not knowing to get neither up nor down.

Ropes are hung out at three location, the first at the western side of the ridge (at approx. 400 m s.s.l.), the second at the eastern side (at approx. 440 m a.s.l.) and the third on the ridge (at approx. 455 m a.s.l.) just under the top. Although the ropes seems to be exchanged from time to timen, they ar quite worn, so I would relay to much on them. The rock is also quite good to scramble on.

A couple of turns after the first scramble location, we came to the the ledge shown below. Her, you need to go over to the eastern side to find the second scrambling location. From here, we quickly reached the top of the ridge and found the third scramble area there.

On the top, there was a beautiful view towards Breiðafjörður and Grundarfjörður.

We followed the same rout back down.