Okjökull Memorial Hike: Visiting the World’s First ‘Dead Glacier’ Plaque on Ok

In August 2019 a small group climbed the broad dome of Ok, a shield volcano in West Iceland, and bolted a bronze plaque to the summit rock. It marks Okjökull, the first named Icelandic glacier declared lost to a warming climate. The ceremony, complete with a symbolic funeral, drew reporters worldwide. The hike to reach it is long, pathless in places, and possible only in the short summer window, but it takes you to one of the more quietly moving spots in the country.

Why Ok became a global story

Ok is a rounded shield volcano rising to roughly 1,198 metres, west of the Langjökull ice cap and reached from the Kaldidalur highland road (Route 550). For most of the 20th century its summit carried a glacier, Okjökull. That ice shrank from about 15 square kilometres around 1900 to roughly 0.7 square kilometres by 2015. In 2014 glaciologist Oddur Sigurðsson formally declared it no longer a glacier, because the remaining ice was too thin to move under its own weight.

Rice University anthropologists Cymene Howe and Dominic Boyer told the story in their 2018 film Not Ok and proposed a memorial. The plaque, titled “A letter to the future” and written by author Andri Snær Magnason, warns that Iceland’s other glaciers are expected to follow within 200 years. It ends with the atmospheric carbon dioxide reading for that month: 415 ppm.

The hike to the plaque

The usual approach starts from near Húsafell and the Kaldidalur road, on the western side of Ok. There is no marked, maintained trail to the top, and long stretches cross loose volcanic rock. The ascent is not especially steep, but the ground is awkward and the summit is a wide, featureless dome where it is very easy to lose your bearings in cloud. Reports of round-trip time vary widely with the exact start point and conditions, from roughly 4 hours to 7 hours; treat it as a full-day outing and turn back if the weather closes in.

What remains of the ice is modest: scattered patches of old, dirty snow rather than a true glacier. The reward is the plaque itself and the long view back down toward the Borgarfjörður valley.

Practical details

• Getting there: about a 50-minute drive from the Hvítá Inn toward Húsafell and the start of the Kaldidalur road (Route 550); the road itself is a rough highland gravel track.
• Duration: plan a full day, roughly 4 to 7 hours round trip depending on your exact route and pace.
• When to go: summer only, broadly May through October, once the snow has cleared and the highland road is open.
• Navigation: essential. Bring a GPS track or offline map and a compass, since there is no path and the dome is confusing in fog.
• What to bring: sturdy boots for loose rock, wind- and waterproof layers, plenty of water and food, and a charged phone; there is no shelter or facilities on the mountain.

Where to Stay

The Hvítá Inn sits on the bank of the Hvítá river at Hvítárbakki, about 75 minutes from Reykjavík and only around 50 minutes from the Kaldidalur approach to Ok. That makes it a practical base for an early start on a long summer day: you can be at the trailhead before the crowds and still reach the Borgarfjörður valley’s other sights, waterfalls, and hot springs on the same trip. Rooms have private bathrooms. Book direct on Ourhotels.is for the best rate.

Photo: Dominic Boyer via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.