Church Mountain (Kirkjufell) Summit Hike! - Iceland, Snaefells Peninsula

7/9/22. Church Mountain, aka Kirkjufell, is the most photographed mountain in Iceland. But you can actually summit it easily, which most people don't. The reviews make you think this is sketchy but it really isn't at all! I was glad I did this. This is located on the Snaefells Peninsula in Western Iceland. You can check out Kirkjufellsfoss too!

[@caitlineiben3917]

I'm very glad I found your video. I added my itinerary on an Iceland travel group asking for recommendations for the Westfjords. All anyone could focus on was telling me that I shouldn't be hiking Kirkjufell 🙄

[@HikingEngineer]

it's pretty straight forward! and would be much easier if not wet like it was for me. I have lots of other Iceland videos too! And stuff in the US!

[@user-mg5wt1np8w]

Scares me!

[@rugged9769]

Visited it last year with family. Was a bit psyched out by the reviews but wish I had gone up myself. Beautiful place though

[@HikingEngineer]

Yeah I read the reviews before doing it and was expecting a mountaineering adventure where I needed gear -- so I was kinda upset at the inaccuracy of the reviews after doing it

[@questionsaboutcho]

Thank you for this video! We will be there late next week if everything goes well. Were the switchbacks really narrow? They look narrow on your video, but hoping to do this hike in the morning. How long would you say it took to get up and how long to get down? Thanks!!!

[@HikingEngineer]

anytime! I try to put as much content up as I can! I am a very fast hiker and very comfortable on exposed rock/ledges/narrow trail, class 3/4, etc -- so take this with a grain of salt -- but I thought it was an easy hike and not treacherous at all. It probably took me 30 min up and maybe 20-25 down -- in other words, not long, but I didn't actually time it or anything, that's just from memory

[@HikingEngineer]

and when I did it the rock was all wet, so dry I would think it would be a piece of cake :)

[@questionsaboutcho]

@@HikingEngineer thank you! I watched another video yesterday of a couple that hiked it all the way to the top too but made it look way scarier. I think we will give it a try, but if it gets too sketchy, we can always turn around. For "slow-ish" hikers, do you think an hour up and an hour down would be a good estimate? Were the cliffs super narrow, or did you have enough trail to feel like you weren't going to fall off unless you were being stupid?

[@HikingEngineer]

@@questionsaboutcho I've learned over the years to try not to estimate hiking times for people I don't know, because someone could take 10 minutes, someone could take hours! Just based on the footage and then the mileage and elevation gain, I would use a similar hike you've done to judge how long it will take. To me, there was no exposure and it was "easy". But if you watch other videos of mine, you'll see I scramble all over class 3/4 exposed rock like it's nothing

[@HikingEngineer]

@@questionsaboutcho I think I left a pretty "colorful" review on alltrails right after I did it (early July 2022) because I was upset that people made comments that it was "mountaineering"