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The 11 Best Glaciers You Can Walk On Before They're Gone

Glacier walks and ice caves, ranked with an honest now-or-never edge. These rivers of ice are shrinking fast. Eleven you can still strap crampons onto and walk across — for now.

I’m going to be straight with you. The best glaciers to visit are also the ones you should hurry to see, because a lot of them won’t be here in any recognisable form when our kids are our age. I’m not saying that to scare you into clicking. I’ve stood on ice that a guide pointed at a photo and said “that’s where the glacier ended ten years ago,” and the photo was a long way back down the valley. It’s sobering.

So. Go now. Strap on the crampons. Here are eleven worth it.

1. Sólheimajökull, Iceland

The easy one. A couple of hours from Reykjavík, a flat-ish approach, and a glacier tongue you can walk across with a guide and basic crampons. Tours run about €90 and last a few hours. Never walk onto it alone — the crevasses open up fast and the ice is alive under you. The blue inside the cracks is a colour you won’t forget.

2. Perito Moreno, Argentina

The famous one that’s actually still advancing, which makes it a happy outlier on this list. You hear it before you see it — huge chunks calve off the front and crash into the lake with a boom. The “Big Ice” trek puts you out on the surface for hours. Pricier, around USD 180, and worth every cent.

3. Franz Josef, New Zealand

Once you could walk up the valley to the face. Not anymore — the retreat has been brutal and the only real way onto the ice now is a heli-hike, where a chopper drops you up top. It’s a splurge (NZD 500+) but the upper glacier is otherworldly, all seracs and blue caves.

4. Fox Glacier, New Zealand

Franz Josef’s neighbour, same story — heli access now. A bit quieter, slightly cheaper sometimes. The ice caves up here form and collapse season to season, so what your guide finds is never the same twice. That impermanence is sort of the whole point.

5. Vatnajökull, Iceland

Europe’s biggest ice cap, and the source of the famous blue ice caves you’ve seen all over the internet. The caves are a winter-only thing (Nov-March) because they flood in summer. Go with a guide from Jökulsárlón — the lagoon, the icebergs, the cave, it’s a full day of staggering cold beauty.

6. Aletsch, Switzerland

The largest glacier in the Alps, a 23km river of ice you can view from the Eggishorn or actually trek alongside with a mountain guide. It’s retreating fast — the figures are grim. But standing above that frozen highway curving down the valley is one of the great alpine sights.

7. Mendenhall, Alaska, USA

Right outside Juneau, which makes it almost too accessible. You can kayak to the face, or hike and scramble to the famous ice caves (when they’re stable — they’re not always). The caves glow an electric blue from inside. Check conditions; they’ve become genuinely dangerous as the ice thins.

8. Athabasca, Canada

Part of the Columbia Icefield on the Icefields Parkway, and one of the easiest big glaciers to reach — you can drive right up. Guided ice walks (Icewalks) get you safely onto the surface. The markers along the road showing the ice’s retreat over the decades are a quiet gut-punch.

9. Jostedalsbreen, Norway

Mainland Europe’s largest glacier, with arms like Nigardsbreen that you can hike onto with a guide from the valley. The approach over the polished rock and meltwater is half the experience. Summer is the season; tours are well-run and not insanely priced.

10. Pasterze, Austria

Austria’s longest glacier, below the Grossglockner, reachable via the spectacular Grossglockner High Alpine Road. It’s retreating so visibly that the viewpoint area has signs marking each year’s edge. Guided walks run in summer. Go for the drive as much as the ice, honestly.

11. Briksdalsbreen, Norway

An arm of Jostedalsbreen that ends in a glacial lake — a gorgeous, accessible hike up to the face, past waterfalls, to a viewpoint over the meltwater pool. You don’t strap crampons on for the basic walk, but guided ice trips run from nearby. A lovely, lower-commitment glacier day.

Glacier	Country	Access	Cost-ish	Season
Sólheimajökull	Iceland	Easy + guide	€90	Year-round
Perito Moreno	Argentina	Trek	USD 180	Oct-Apr
Franz Josef	NZ	Heli-hike	NZD 500+	Year-round
Vatnajökull caves	Iceland	Guide	Varies	Nov-Mar
Athabasca	Canada	Drive + walk	Moderate	Summer

Can I walk on a glacier without a guide? Please don’t. Crevasses hide under thin snow bridges, and the ice changes daily. A guide and crampons are not optional safety theatre — they’re the reason you come home.

Are the ice caves always there? No. Most are seasonal and some collapse without warning. Always go with an outfit checking conditions that day, never off an Instagram photo from last year.

One glacier to prioritise? Perito Moreno. It’s still advancing, the calving show is unreal, and you can actually walk the surface for hours.

Go see the ice while it’s still ice. I mean it — these aren’t permanent, and that’s exactly why they’re worth the trip.

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