This week, Vatnajökull National Park has the benefit of a team of volunteers from the USA. The team consists of 11 students from Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. They will spend a week in Skaftafell, repairing hiking trails that were badly damaged in heavy rainfall last February.

Due to a large number of visitors this winter, the opening hours of Skaftafell Visitor Centre have been extended throughout February. From now on, until the end of February, the visitor centre will be open from 10 to 16.

This winter has seen changing weather in Skaftafell: cold, bright and breezy days with relatively warm, rainy days in between. Due to this, an almost continuous sheet of ice has formed on the hiking trails towards Svartifoss waterfall. The hiking trails are therefore impassable unless for those equipped with crampons.

Growing numbers of visitors to the National Park make their way up onto double-peaked Mt. Kristínartindar in Skaftafell, which commands one of the most magnificent views to be seen anywhere in Iceland.

On Tuesday, 28 August, professor Richard Walker from Keele University UK, will talk to guests in Skaftafell about Icelandic glaciers.

At Mt. Laki a new Visitor Trail tells the story of the catastrophic Skaftá Fires eruption in 1783-4, and informs the visitor about the natural environment of the Lakagígar craters. The Trail, which is about 500 metres in length, passes through one of the craters.