Álftavatn. People swim. It is not warm.
INCLUDED
Bus into the Highlands · private driver back to Reykjavík · three nights in mountain huts · one night in pitched tents with pads at Emstrur · cozy two bed rooms at Skógar · daily duffel transfer between huts · two experienced guides who have run this route · all meals on trail, breakfasts, packed lunches and dinners · Álftavatn restaurant dinner · Volcano Huts buffet and packed lunches · celebration dinner at Skógar · trail breakfasts and snacks · campsite and hut fees · custom trip clothing and bag tags · GPS files and maps · full logistics · detailed packing list
NOT INCLUDED
Airfare · travel insurance (required) · your sleeping bag · lodging in Reykjavík before or after the trip · airport transfers · alcohol · gratuities · costs arising from early exit, missed flights, or weather changes outside our control
Your Guides
TWO OF US, ON THE TRAIL, ALL WEEK
John Hardin
FOUNDER, HARDWIN ADVENTURES · LEAD GUIDE
I founded HardWin Adventures out of Nashville and I own HardWin Vacations. Twenty years in event production, most of it putting people outdoors in places that ask something of them. Trail races, ultras, endurance events, community outings. I am also Director of RUNNTENN, a nonprofit running free and accessible running and walking events across Tennessee, because the point of all of this is to remove barriers rather than build them, and to put a community together on the other side.
Outside the events, I chase Fastest Known Times. I hold records on the Ozark Highlands Trail, the Sheltowee Trace, and the Natchez Trace.
The one people ask about is the Appalachian Trail. I went after the speed record and held record pace for 779 miles before a quad tear ended it. Twelve states short. That attempt taught me more than any of the finishes did. About what a body does on day eighteen, about making decisions when you are too tired to make them well, and about the difference between wanting something and being able to keep moving toward it. Most of what I know about how a hard week actually goes came from days like those.
What I actually believe in is giving people huge life experiences. Through goals in my races, through community with RUNNTENN, and now through HardWin Vacations, where the experience comes with people you will know for the rest of your life.
I am on the trail with you the entire week. Not coordinating from town, not meeting the group for dinner. Cooking in the hut, making the weather call on the pass, walking the whole thing alongside you.
I live in Nashville with my wife Stephanie, our son Zaidyn, our dogs, and a cat who appears to be reviewing my long term status.
Guide: Lauren Beihoffer
Lauren Beihoffer, M.S.
SECOND GUIDE · ENDURANCE COACH
Lauren is a former research scientist and teacher turned endurance coach, guide, and lifelong adventurer. She brings years of experience across ultrarunning, backpacking, adventure racing, mountaineering, and wilderness travel to her work.
Her mission is to create meaningful experiences that foster reflection, growth, and connection through time spent in the wild. She believes everyone, from the aspiring adventurer to the most seasoned endurance athlete, deserves the opportunity to explore, learn, challenge themselves, and build community in wild places.
When she is not coaching or guiding, Lauren can usually be found running ultras, carrying a pack, chasing big mountains, or planning her next adventure. You can also catch her on Discovery Channel's Season 16 of Naked and Afraid.
She guided the first HardWin Iceland trip and is back for 2027. She knows this route, this weather, and what a group needs on day four when everyone is tired and the wind has picked up.
UESCA Certified Running Coach
Precision Nutrition Certified Nutritionist
GGS Certified Women's Health Specialist
Certified Metabolic Efficiency Specialist
Misfit Mountain Athletics Two guides for twelve travelers. Both of us walk every mile of it with you.
We Do Iceland the Right Way
EVERY REASON, NOT JUST THE OBVIOUS ONE
The extra day is the part nobody else offers. It is not the only reason this week works.
THE BIG ONE
We Haul Your Gear
Every day, your duffel moves ahead of you by vehicle to the next hut. You hike with a daypack.
This changes the entire week. You move fast and light over 51 miles of Highland terrain, and then you walk into camp and every creature comfort you own is already sitting there. Dry clothes. A real sleeping bag. Whatever you decided you could not do without. Most people on this trail are carrying forty pounds and rationing what they brought. You are not.
MEALS We Cover the Food
You do not shop for this trip, carry a week of freeze dried, or work out what everyone is eating on night three. We handle it.
Breakfasts are light and early. Oatmeal, bars, fruit, and real coffee before we move. Enough to get you going without sitting in a hut for an hour.
Lunches are packed and eaten on the trail wherever the view is best.
Dinners are the good part. We cook together in the hut kitchens most nights, sit down at the restaurant at Álftavatn, take the hot buffet at Volcano Huts before the big day, and finish with a proper dinner in Skógar that is on us.
Tell us about allergies and dietary needs on your application and we plan around them.
The Group We're Looking For
Twelve people, five nights, shared kitchens and a lot of weather. We are not looking for the fastest, and we do not care about your race resume. We are looking for people who can be cold and tired and still be good company. People who follow a guide's call, notice when someone else is struggling, and do hard things without making it everyone else's problem.
That is what the application is for. It is as much your chance to work out whether you want this as it is ours.
Some people come alone and leave with friends. Some bring the person they most want to see it with.
Who This Is For
Our biggest fear is that this type of trip simply isn't for you. We aren't looking for the strongest or the fastest. We screen for an endurance mindset. People who have struggled, kept moving, and found success on the other side. When the chips are down, can you accept the situation, keep moving forward, and help the person beside you who may be struggling?
We screen because your mindset affects not only your safety and happiness, but the safety, happiness and experience of the entire group. Know that this is nature. We don't conquer it, but we do our best to survive it.
BEFORE YOU APPLY, IMAGINE THIS
You're two days into the trip when 70 mph winds pin us down on a mountain. The temperature is dropping, everything is wet, and the route ahead is no longer an option. You haven't slept, you're running out of dry clothes, and the trip you spent months preparing for is over. Now we have to turn around and fight our way back out. You're cold, exhausted, pissed off and miserable, and the person next to you is having an even worse day.
Do you still want to come?
Cancellation and Refunds
READ THIS BEFORE YOU PRE-REGISTER
This is the section people skip and then get surprised by, so we have written it out properly. None of it is unusual for guided international travel. All of it is worth understanding before you commit.
STEP 0 Before you are admitted, you are not charged
Pre-registration stores your card. Nothing moves. If we do not admit you, there is nothing to refund because nothing was ever taken. You are not out a dollar and you are not waiting on a bank.
GRACE WINDOW A short window of full refundability after you are charged
Once we admit you and your deposit is charged, a short cooling-off window applies and you can cancel for a full refund. The exact window is stated at checkout. This is standard consumer protection on a purchase like this, not a favor we are doing you.
AFTER THAT Your payment becomes non refundable
This is the part that matters. Once the window closes, we start spending your money on your trip. Hut beds get booked and paid. Guides are contracted. The luggage transfer, the bus, the driver, the tents at Emstrur, the rooms in Skógar. Iceland vendors take payment months ahead and most of it does not come back.
We are not holding your deposit. We have committed it on your behalf.
90+ DAYS OUT We try to recover what we can
Cancel more than 90 days before departure and we will go back to every vendor and try to recover what has been committed. Anything we get back, you get back. This is a good faith effort, not a guarantee. Some vendors refund, some do not, and we cannot promise an outcome we do not control.
INSIDE 90 DAYS Recovery is unlikely
Within 90 days of departure almost everything is spent and unrecoverable. We will still make the effort, but plan on the answer being no.
This is exactly why we require travel insurance with emergency medical and evacuation coverage. Insurance is what protects your money against the things nobody can plan for. Illness, injury, a family emergency, a job that changes. We cannot be your insurance. That is not us being harsh, it is the honest limit of what a small operator can absorb.
Cancellation, If We Cancel
IF WE CANCEL
Minimum group size is 10 per departure. If a week does not reach it, we cancel that week and refund you in full, and we will tell you no later than 90 days before departure.
That 90 day promise is deliberate. We are opening this early specifically so that if a week does not fill, you find out with three months to spare, before you have booked flights on a maybe, and while you still have a real shot at reasonable airfare somewhere else.
If we cancel for any other reason within our control, you get a full refund. If something genuinely outside anyone's control forces a cancellation, we refund whatever has not already been spent on your behalf.
NATURE DOES NOT READ ITINERARIES
Weather, river levels and trail conditions can change the route, shorten a day, or alter the trip. Guide decisions made for group safety are final and are not grounds for a refund. If we cannot cross Fimmvörðuháls, we take the alternate and the trip still happens. You are buying a week in the Icelandic Highlands, not a guarantee about which ground you cover.
Transfers. If you cannot come, ask us. Moving you to the other departure, or passing your spot to someone else who clears the application, is sometimes possible depending on timing and vendor terms. We would much rather solve it than keep your money.
Other terms. Participants must be 18 or older. A signed participant agreement and proof of travel insurance are required before departure. Costs from personal early exit, missed flights, or evacuation are your responsibility.
