It was snowing & seriously blowing in the days preceding our visit to Iceland's most popular ski resort. A theme that was to be repeated throughout our Icelandic journey. Covid was starting to rear its ugly head too, so we were keen to make the most of a break in the early March weather to ski Blafjoll. Our timing was perfect (good management as well as good luck). The locals in the ski-out, ski-in car park, amused by our accents, told us that conditions were as good as they ever get. "Normally it is too windy and the snow is hard" was a constant part of the many convivial conversations. Such a friendly place!
During the week, Blafjoll only opens late in the afternoon & into the night. The late afternoon light is absolutely gorgeous in Iceland. And the skiing was wonderful on shallow off-piste powder & perfect groomers.
With only 15km of trails & a lofty skiable vertical of just 240m (yes that’s 240), Blafjoll is never going to host the Winter Olympics. That said, it has some fun terrain. We enjoyed the steeper off-piste sections & noted broad swathes of untracked sidecountry terrain either side of, and behind, the resort area. In fact, we may have tracked some of it ourselves. A great lark indeed and we were able to ski back into the lift base without too much effort.
As far as ski lifts go, there may be a total of 15 lifts, but unless one is a beginner, the entire ski area can be explored using just 3 lifts. We are not even sure if several of the more duplicitous lifts would ever even run.
We stayed in a few different spots in the south near Balfjoll. One of the best was in the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina right on the harbour in Reykjavik. A lively town centre full of bars & restaurants, it provided great entertainment. The polar opposite was staying in an isolated guesthouse where we had the entire place to ourselves, never sighted the owner and were surrounded by endless fields of snow to the horizon. Wonderful.
Resort skiing is not a reason to visit Iceland - it is all about touring & heli-ski in the north. But, if you do visit & you have a few hours to kill, we recommend skiing at Blafjoll for no other reason than to stretch the legs, get some exercise, feel the cold air in your lungs, chat to the locals & enjoy the evening light....... Who knows, you might even score some cheeky powder like we did!
