Greenland Adventures by Icelandic Mountain Guides 

Maxime Poncet

Guide

Position: Glacier Guide AIMG III + Mountain Guide AIMG II. Maxime has also the French Accompagnateur en Montagne hiking guide qualifications.  

Education: In addition to his guiding qualifications Maxime has a Master degree in Math from France. Maxime speaks: French, English and Icelandic and has a professional driver's’ license. 

Specialization: During the summer Maxime spends most of his time in the Icelandic highlands. There he guides primarily French speaking clients on challenging backpacking tours. The winter is a little more relaxed, where he mostly guides short Glacier tours on Sólheimajökull Glacier. During spring, Maxime mostly guides cross country ski expeditions in Iceland and in Greenland.

Þóra Helgadóttir

Guide

When Þóra finished her guiding diploma 10 years ago, we called ourselves lucky to get her on our team. Þóra has extensive knowledge about everything related to Iceland and Icelandic people. In addition to being a great cook, she is a pleasure to travel with. She has a bad case of the mountain bug - a disease that requires you to spend as much time as you can in the highlands. You might find Þóra on any one of our trekking or backpacking tours in Iceland or Greenland.

Dagný Indriðadóttir

Guide

Dagný is one of our tour specialists but in summer, she sometimes takes off to guide, travel or to work as a warden in a mountain hut somewhere. She likes to travel to faraway countries, may it be for hiking, mountain climbing or just to soak in a different culture. Dagný has been seen on all kinds of tours, from cross country skiing to bird watching tours. She is a folklorist and has a degree in gender studies.

Róbert Thor Haraldsson

Guide

Róbert Thor Haraldsson is one of Icelandic Mountain Guides (IMG) most experienced guides and has been with the company for over a decade.

He has successfully led ski expeditions for IMG across the Greenland icecap and Iceland. On foot with his backpack, he has three times led the Iceland Traverse, a 32 day 500 km long expedition across the island.

Over the years, Robert has led many of IMG’s most demanding tours and has been lead guide at IMG’s base in Skaftafell. He has guided numerous mountain and summit climbs and has criss crossed all of Iceland’s interior on both foot and skis.

Robert is an active backcountry skier and spends his winters on the west coast of Canada. He is currently the chairman of the Association of Icelandic Mountain Guides (AIMG). Robert is also a certified CAA Level 2 avalanche technician, WMA Wilderness First Responder, CSIA Level 2 Ski instructor and has advanced training in technical rope rescue and SAR.

Tomas Manoury

Guide

Tomas Manoury is a half French, half Icelandic musician/guide who has been guiding since the millennium. He specializes in trekking and backpacking tours and he loves to find new routes and trying new trails. His favorite place in Iceland is Grænafjall, a beautiful and isolated mountain with lots of wild vegetation. Even blueberries can be found there spite of being at high altitude and surrounded by glaciers. You might find Tomas on any of our Greenland tours or backpacking between Núpsstaðarskógar and Skaftafell.

Leifur Örn Svavarsson

Guide

Leifur Örn Svavarsson founded Icelandic Mountain Guides (IMG) with his cousin Einar Torfi Finnsson and two other friends back in 1994. His extensive knowledge and experience gathered during his very active guiding life for three decades is invaluable to us.

Leifur has experience of guiding pretty much all the tours and expeditions that IMG is and has ever offered, in Iceland, Greenland and elsewhere. From Vatnajökull glacier traverses in full-on winter conditions, cross country ski expeditions, touring ski tours, winter mountain climbs and climbing courses to backpacking tours in very remote areas, hiking over glaciers and wild rivers in the summer. With his guiding experience dating back to 1985, he is probably the most experienced Mountain Guide in Iceland.

Few highlights of his career:

• In May 2013 Leifur became the first Icelander to climb the worlds highest mountain Mt. Everest via the North Col route.
• Leifur has been to both the North and South Pole and is currently finishing off the Explorers Grand Slam.
• Leifur has been an expedition leader of many of IMG‘s successful expeditions to the continental summits like Mt. Elbrus – highest peak of Europe, Aconcagua – highest peak of S-America and Mt. Vinson- highest peak of Antarctica as well as first ascent missions elsewhere in Antarctica. He has guided groups to different mountain areas like several tours to the Atlas Mountains in N-Africa climbing the highest peak, Mt. Toupcal, and the European Alps climbing Mt. Blanc and several other 4000 m peaks.
• Leifur climbed mountains like Peak Lenin (7.134m) in difficult conditions and Cho Oyu, the world‘s 6th highest peak, 8.202m and Denali/McKinley - highest peak of N-America.
• He has lead several of IMG‘s expeditions across Greenland ice cap, been expedition leader in expeditions to Greenland’s highest summit, Mt. Gunnbjörn as well as even more remote peaks like Dome and Eijnar Mikkelsen Mountains on the East cost of Greenland. He has led first ascent expeditions in Greenland where unclimbed peaks were scaled for the first time.
• Leifur did a 29 day ski expedition on the Greenland ice cap, training the Indian Army for the South Pole as well as a 18 day winter training for US military in Thule, Greenland's northern most settlement.

Many of Leifur‘s expeditions are unique like the Nanoq expedition to Mt. Forel in 2000. Then he and Guðjón Marteinsson went on dog sleds up to the Greenland ice cap, skied north the glacier to Mt. Forel where they climbed the summit before walking on skis, 150 km over difficult mountain terrain to the next village on the East cost of Greenland.

Leifur has great knowledge of Greenland. He has visited almost every inhabited area in the country and guided numerous trekking, backpacking, mountaineering, touring- and cross country skiing tours to different locations in Greenland. For a while Leifur did have an regular radio program at the Icelandic National radio about the exploration of Greenland and about polar explores.

Leifur has a university degree in geology, specialized in avalanches. He has finished Level II Avalanche program form Canadian Avalanche Association and worked as a director of the Avalanche Warning department of the Icelandic Meteorological Office from 2002-2010.

Leifur is an experienced lecturer speaking all over Iceland. Leifur worked as the principal instructor for the Icelandic Rescue teams (ICE-SAR) for 7 winters. There he was responsible for training other instructors of mountaineering, mountain rescue and avalanches as well as making text books and course manuals that are still in use. He teaches Level 1 avalanche courses regularly, as well as ice climbing and mountaineering courses for rescue team members and public. For the last 10 years Leifur has been involved in training trekking guides in the Guide School of Iceland.

Leifur was a team leader for the ICE-SAR first responders team at the Icelandic Air Ground Rescue teams for more than 10 years. He was incident commander in several larger rescue operations like the catastrophic avalanches in Flateyri where 20 persons where killed, technical rescues like the one from the 200 m deep Glymur gorge as well as many others.

Leifur has been in charge for mountaineering and glacier walking at the Icelandic Mountain Guides. There he has been manging the training of glaciers and mountain guides. He has guided tours to the highest peak of Iceland, Hvannadalshnúkur (2110m), countless times as well as other peaks in Iceland. 

Leifur is an active climber and has climbed many new ice climbing and mountaineering routes the last decades. He has a successful background in ultra marathons and adventure races, winning several weekend races in Iceland and taking 4th place in Arctic Team Challenge in Greenland, professional category.

If you are lucky, you might be able to contact Leifur while he‘s at the IMG office, but most likely he will not be there since he much rather prefers to be out in the mountains with an ice axe in his hand or with skies on his feet.

Summary of education and qualifications:

Guiding related:

• ICE-SAR basic rescue team training
• ICE-SAR first responder
• IMG mountain guide
• AIMG glacier and mountain guide
• Level II hard-ice guide (NZMGA HIG standard)
• Alpine Trekking guide (NZMGA standard)
• CAA Avalanche operations Level 2 technician
• Wilderness first responder (WFR)

Other:

• BSc. degree in geology (University of Iceland)
• Professional drivers licence

Non work related interests and hobbies: Mountain biking with his friends, skiing and taking his family rock climbing to Thailand or Kalimnos.

Einar Torfi Finnsson

Guide

Einar Torfi founded Icelandic Mountain Guides (IMG) with his cousin Leifur Örn Svavarsson along with two other friends back in 1994. He also founded Iceland Rovers (ILR) along with his wife and friends in 1997.

Einar is considered an expert in everything regarding outdoor adventures in both Iceland and Greenland. His knowledge of each destination has no limits (really) and you can be sure that books about polar expeditions are never far from him.

Einar spends most of his time running the Greenland department of IMG but like many of our office staff members, he clears his mind every now by doing what he loves, guiding tours. In winter, you might find Einar in Greenland with his cross country skis tied on or in the highlands of Iceland on the Winter Highlights super jeep tour.

Einar got his basic mountaineering training from the ICE-SAR way back and was an active member of the Icelandic Air Ground Rescue teams for two decades. He´s been guiding since 1984, mainly guiding hiking and cross country ski tours in the winter, also backpacking and trekking tours in the summer time.

Einar has been guiding some of our tougher expeditions across the highlands and glaciers of Iceland and Greenland in the winter time. He has guided on Mt. Gunnbjörn and Dome and Cone, the three highest mountains in Greenland and four times lead expeditions across the Greenland ice cap. In 2014, he went to Antarctica leading an expedition to the South Pole, going all the way, some 1200 km on skis. Einar is a very experienced guide with a passion for mountaineering, mountain biking, the arctic, nature and nature conservation. He is a certified Polar Guide from the International Polar Guides Association (IPGA).  

Summary of education and qualifications:

Guiding related:

• - IGPA Polar Guide
• - ICE-SAR basic rescue team training
• - ICE-SAR first responder
• - AIMG glacier guide
• - Level II hard-ice guide (NZMGA HIG standard)
• - CAA Avalanche operations Level 2 technician
• - Wilderness first responder (WFR)
• - Diploma as Tourist Guide
• - Diploma as a Mountain Leader in summer

Other:

• - Deug in Geography (University of Sorbonne, Paris)
• - French for foreign students (University of Sorbonne, Paris)
• - Professional drivers licence

Non work related interests and hobbies:  Cross-country skiing, reading books, big foot Land Rovers, mountain biking, hiking, travelling around the world, and his family.

Ingibjörg G. Guðjónsdóttir

Guide

Ingibjörg has over 20 years of experience being a guide and it´s not far-fetched as her education lies in the fields of tourism and ethnology. When it comes to cooking, Ingibjörg uses all kinds of wild herbs and spices from nature. Some even say that she has the knowledge of a sorceress to make the taste of your food unforgettable! You are most likely to find Ingibjörg on the Highlands and Hot Springs super jeep tour or out on a trek.

Ursula Giger

Guide

A Swiss native with passion for Iceland, Ursula has been guiding for 2 decades in both Iceland and Greenland, mostly on hiking and trekking tours. Always adding adventures to her list, Ursula has completed an expedition crossing the Greenland icecap. She has a degree in literature and is a specialist in the Icelandic Sagas. You might find Ursula on the tour Hiking at the End of the World or some of our East Greenland tours.

Jón Yngvi

Guide

Jón Yngvi Gylfason is a very experienced summit and glacier guide and also guides day tours and longer tours both winter and summer. He has also been teaching on courses, training junior guides.

He co-led two cross country ski expeditions this year (with one of our most experienced guides Maxime Poncet), the Sprengisandur traverse and the Greenland ice cap crossing.

Jón Yngvi is an extremely likable person and is the undisputed king of very positive comments on Trip Advisor.

Jón Yngvi got his basic mountaineering education from the ICE-SAR and was a member of a first responders mountain rescue team for years. Jón Yngvi is a certified WMA Wilderness First Responder. He holds an advanced drivers licence and drove big 4x4 buses in the highlands for couple of  years.

Summary of education and qualifications:

Guiding related:

• - Level II hard-ice guide (NZMGA HIG standard)
• - IMG glacier guide
• - AIMG glacier guide
• - Wilderness first responder (WFR)

Other:

• - Sociology (University of Iceland)
• - Professional drivers licence

Non work related interests and hobbies: Playing that funky music, photography, ice climbing, and being outdoors.

Helga María Heiðarsdóttir

Guide

Helga María is a Reykjavík city girl that loves the backcountry. She started working for IMG as a glacier guide in 2008 and has since then guided many different hiking and discovery adventures. Being a glaciologist, Helga does know an awful lot about glaciers and is now currently working on her Ph.D. in glaciology/geophysics at the University of Iceland. Her qualifications include Glacier Skills Level Two, Mountain skills Level One and Wilderness First Responder. You can be sure that with Helga María as your guide, you will get some extra special knowledge about Iceland´s many glaciers as well as getting a lot of interesting geological info.

Andrea Burgherr

Guide

Andrea was born in Switzerland but started to make trips to Iceland in 1983. She has since developed a deep love for Iceland´s natural beauty. Her guiding experience goes all the way back to 1986, guiding a backpack tour from Þórsmörk to Landmannalaugar. She has since travelled all over Iceland as well as in East Greenland. In 1999, she started summertime guiding for IMG but continued as a teacher in winter in primary school. In 2005, she quit her teaching job and started working full time as an IMG office staff member. Today she guides in Iceland and Greenland for the company.

Andrea's favorite place is Grænalón (in south Iceland, Skaftafell National Park)

Gréta Guðjónsdóttir

Guide

Gréta was born and raised in downtown Reykjavík but during the summer months she would travel abroad or stay at her farm close to the volcano Mt. Hekla. She studied in the Netherlands for four years, and has lived in Norway, Germany, Sweden and Madrid. She started as a photography tour guide because it allowed her to combine her 20 years of freelance photography with her need to be out in nature. Guiding has also been a great opportunity for her to use the languages that she has learned and be out in a beautiful surrounding with interesting people. She has been a part of the Icelandic Mountain Guides team since 2011 and she has been guiding for over 15 years. She is a certified Wilderness First Responder (WFR). Alongside guiding, she teaches photography at an art academy and still works freelance, both in a studio and doing landscape photography.

All the Icelandic highlands hold a special place in her heart, especially around Mt. Hekla. She also really loves the head of Iceland, Vestfirðir and Hornstrandir. The remoteness and feeling of being totally along in the world is what she enjoys the most. In fact, her favorite place can be anywhere she can hear birds, water running in a river, smell nature and feel the weather. Getting some good pictures along the way is a big bonus!

She feels lucky to have done a lot of traveling but she still has a lot of places on her bucket list. She is mostly drawn to photogenic places or areas that allow her to hike, ski, run or cycle. She would love to hike in Nepal, run the Mount Blanc, cycle the Ruta Austral in Chile or Peru, as well as photograph South Africa, Japan, India, Mexico and Argentina.