Ski Touring in Iceland: A Cozy Lodge, or the Last Wilderness by Boat | After Hours by 57hours Ep. #3

Smári is an Icelandic backcountry ski guide and one of only five formally certified ski guides in the country. He grew up on the Troll Peninsula — skiing before he could properly walk, carried on his father’s back — and has been ski touring for over 20 years. He started guiding on skis in 2012, long before formal guide education existed in Iceland, and in 2023 completed the country’s first official ski guide training program, developed in collaboration with Canadian and Swedish guiding organizations. He now guides backcountry ski tours on the Troll Peninsula and boat-accessed expeditions into the Hornstrandir Nature Reserve. He knows this terrain the way only someone who grew up in it can.

Ólöf is the co-founder of Sóti Summits, a guiding and lodge company on the tip of the Troll Peninsula, about 40 kilometers from the Arctic Circle. She spent a decade as Director General of Icelandic Tourism before deciding she wanted to do something closer to the ground. In 2015, she and her husband bought a dilapidated old schoolhouse in the region where her mother’s family is from — her grandfather was born on the neighboring farm — and built it into one of Iceland’s best backcountry ski destinations. She runs the lodge, the hospitality, and the team, which includes four of Iceland’s five certified ski guides.

Viktor Marohnić is the CEO and co-founder of 57hours. Born in Croatia, he moved to New York in 2010 and found his way into the mountains through a guide. He’s been chasing that feeling ever since — as a skier, climber, runner, and kitesurfer. Iceland has been on his ski list for a while. After this conversation, it moved up.