Review: Highland Base Kerlingarfjöll

Iceland really has been the “land of fire and ice” lately, with the recent eruptions on the Reykjanes Peninsula causing the temporary closure of the Retreat at Blue Lagoon, a 60-suite hotel and subterranean geothermal spa. Luckily the sustainably minded wellness company’s new sister venture, a year-round off-grid retreat for adventure extremists, is 110 miles—and another planet—away in Iceland’s vast and mostly frozen interior, which remained unexplored until the 1930s. Highland Base in Kerlingarfjöll—a vast reserve of snowdrift-blanketed peaks, glaciers, lava fields, and silence—might as well be on the moon. Getting there is a mission. In winter, after arriving at Skjol Basecamp (90 minutes on the Golden Circle from Reykjavik) it can take two to five hours of “floating” over virgin snow in adapted Super Jeeps. The angular Highland Base huddles in a valley like a Nordic minimalist space station, a 28-room hotel and six podlike lodges occupying the abandoned structures of the pioneers who have gone before. The pods, which have sunken living rooms, Polaroid-like windows, and hanging ponchos, were designed with sustainable aged wood and concrete by Icelandic firm Basalt Architects, masterminds of the Blue Lagoon. There’s also a sleeping bag option in A-frame huts left over from a 1960s summer ski school. Activities include cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and hiking, as well jumping in the geothermal baths to see the northern lights after dinners of Arctic char and warming shots of Brennivín schnapps.