Two ways to ski the Troll Peninsula: skins after the morning drop, or a helicopter parked at the door
Four minutes after take-off the helicopter is already peeling away. The rotor noise fades, the snow it threw up settles again, and what's left is the quiet that belongs to high ground this far north. Below the ski tips, a slope of corn snow worked soft by the long northern days runs down towards a fjord so far beneath you that the join between water and sky goes vague. Standing on that ridge of the Troll Peninsula, the only question left is the interesting one: now that the helicopter has opened the mountain, how do you want to ski it?
We run two weeks on Tröllaskagi, the spur of mountains that points north into the Arctic between two fjords. One is built around skins, with a helicopter lifting you to the top of the day every morning. The other is built around a machine that waits outside the front door and flies for as long as the light holds. Same peninsula, same snow — two weeks that share very little else.
Ridgelines that run out into the sea
Tröllaskagi is a peninsula of summits that drop into the ocean without bothering with foothills, spring snow that comes good as the day warms, and descents that now and again finish on black sand. The aspects, the light and the way a day unfolds up there get their proper due in our long piece on heli-assisted ski touring from summit to ocean.
Both weeks share a front door: Akureyri, the capital of the north, which sits at the head of Iceland's longest fjord and has an airport, a geothermal pool and somewhere decent to eat. From there, nothing is far — minutes, or a few dozen of them, depending on which week you're on. The North Iceland tourist board is the useful reference for the Eyjafjörður and what surrounds it.
One drop each morning, then the skin track
This is our heli-assisted ski touring week. The principle fits into a single image. Every morning the helicopter sets you down high, on a ridgeline no chairlift will ever serve. Then the skins go on. You climb, you read the ground as you go, and you come down through snow nobody has touched.
Seven days, six nights, six days of skiing, with one helicopter drop included every ski day — and the option of more, subject to seats, when the day lends itself to it. Around those drops you climb on skins, with ascents of over 800 metres, in groups of four to five skiers and one mountain professional for every four. Two groups on the week at most.
The bar: a 3 out of 5 for ability, the same for fitness. Nothing out of reach for an advanced off-piste skier who has already spent a few days with skins underfoot.
Evenings happen at our lodge on the shore: a chef who cooks properly, a sauna, a hot tub facing the water. The transfer is included — around forty-five minutes by minibus from Akureyri airport towards Dalvík, and the road itself is worth staying awake for, as the run north from Akureyri to the first slopes shows.
The window is March to April. The full itinerary sits on the Iceland heli-assisted ski touring week page, and what a week of ski touring in Iceland contains, day by day, has an article of its own.
Who ends up here? The skier who likes the climb as much as the descent and wants the quiet of a skin track, with one other small group for company on the week. The helicopter opens the door; the climb on skins is the heart of the week.
The house, the fjord and a helicopter of your own
The second week is built for a group that wants the mountain, and the machine, to itself.
Picture a private house on the fjord at Hjalteyri, a former fishing village on the western shore of the Eyjafjörður. Six bedrooms, yours from the first evening to the last, individual rooms included. A private chef cooks; there's a sauna, a hot tub and massages when the legs ask for them. Upstairs, a 100 m² penthouse opens onto a 200 m² wraparound balcony that looks straight out over the water.
Skins don't come into it here. A dedicated AS 350 sits on its pad outside, with unlimited flight time. The first run is four minutes' flying away. In an hour of flight you string together eight to ten descents of 750 to 900 metres of vertical apiece — which makes for the sort of ski day that empties your legs and fills the evening with talk.
The ground runs from the ridges of the Troll Peninsula down to the black beaches, descents that finish facing open sea. On the calmest days, when the sky throws everything open, the professionals push towards a more distant sector. And when the wind closes it, the day changes shape: whales, sea fishing, Lake Mývatn, the geothermal baths.
The group stays small: three skiers to two mountain professionals, or six skiers to four. One week, one group, nobody else in the house. Routes are chosen each morning at the briefing, avalanche kit is complete — airbag pack, transceiver, shovel and probe — and the official Icelandic avalanche bulletin is public, on the Veðurstofa Íslands avalanche service. The professionals are qualified ski instructors specialising in off-piste, heliskiing and ski touring, or mountain guides, depending on the terrain.
On ability, the bar sits lower than most people assume. You need to be a good off-piste skier; this is a sensible week for a first taste of heliskiing in Iceland, since the machine does the access work and you do the turns.
Putting the prices on the table
Most of this market hides its figures behind "on request". We'd rather write them down and explain what sits underneath.
The private week is a per-group package, house and helicopter for your group alone, international flights excluded:
€90,000 for the week with three skiers and two mountain professionals.
€180,000 for the week with six skiers and four professionals, which works out at €30,000 per person.
Those are 2026 rates, and they may be adjusted with the price of fuel — a helicopter drinks, and we'd rather say so than surprise you later.
What the figure holds: the whole house, yours alone, with individual rooms, full board with the private chef, the dedicated helicopter with unlimited flight time, two or four professionals depending on the format, skis and snowboards provided, and full avalanche safety. What it doesn't: international flights and long-distance transfers, your own ski boots, drinks and extras, insurance, tips.
The heli-assisted ski touring week plays an entirely different tune, from €7,500 per person, flights not included: six ski days, a drop each morning, the climbing done on skins, the lodge shared with one other group.
Who ends up on which week
Neither week is the lesser one. They answer different appetites.
The heli-assisted ski touring week goes to the skier who wants the skin track as much as the powder — the silence going up, the ground read metre by metre, then a whole slope of untouched snow with your own track as the only one on it. March to April.
The private heliskiing week goes to the group — family, friends, business partners — who want the peninsula to themselves and the run count high. Fly, ski, fly again, back to the sauna while the fjord goes pink. March to May.
On the light and the snow through an Arctic spring, there's when to ski Tröllaskagi.
The questions that come up before anyone commits
When does the Iceland season run?
March to April for the heli-assisted ski touring week, March to May for the private heliskiing week. The 2027 departures are being set; tell us your window and we'll say what's still open.
How well do I need to ski?
For the touring week: a 3 out of 5 in ability and fitness, comfortable off-piste, able to climb over 800 metres in a day. For the private week: a good off-piste skier, no more. The helicopter handles the access, so a first experience of heliskiing fits perfectly well there.
What's included in the price?
The touring week covers six days of skiing, a helicopter drop each ski day, mountain professionals at one per four skiers, the lodge on the shore with its chef, sauna and hot tub, and the minibus transfer from Akureyri. The private week covers the house for your group alone, with individual rooms, full board with a private chef, the dedicated helicopter with unlimited flight time, two or four professionals, skis and snowboards, and full avalanche safety. International flights sit outside both.
What separates the two weeks?
The part the helicopter plays, and who else is around. On one, it lifts you to the start of a day you then climb yourself, alongside a second small group. On the other, it is yours all week, eight to ten descents to the flying hour, and you are the only group in the house.
How many of us will there be?
Groups of four to five skiers on the touring week, one mountain professional for every four, two groups at most on the week. On the private week, three skiers with two professionals or six with four — one group, one week.
Tell us how you want to ski Iceland
Skins under the skis at first light, or a helicopter waiting outside the door while the coffee is still hot. Say which one sounds like your kind of week, tell us who's coming and when you can travel, and we'll build the rest around it.
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