Iceland's Highland Base Turns an Ultra in the Kerlingarfjöll Range Into a Weekend
A former ski lodge at 700 metres in Iceland's interior hosts a trail race that starts metres from the rooms, with geothermal baths, a carb-loading buffet and a waffle hour built around it.
The Highland Base Kerlingarfjöll Ultra runs from the door of the hotel that gives it its name, a former ski lodge at roughly 700 metres on the edge of the Kerlingarfjöll range in the Icelandic Highlands. The 22km course climbs almost immediately and moves through black volcanic rock, rust-coloured scrambles, waterlogged valleys, dusty singletrack and, in places, ice, before returning to the lodge, where the finish line sits.
Highland Base has 48 rooms and six private lodges, plus huts with narrow sloping roofs modelled on early explorers' shelters and summer camping. Rooms in the newer Hamar wing face the mountains. Beneath the main building, reached by an underground tunnel, the Highland Baths hold several warm soaking pools, a cold plunge and a glass-fronted sauna, open until 11pm and included with a stay year-round.
The single restaurant serves a buffet breakfast and a la carte lunch and dinner, with pan-fried Arctic char among the local dishes; runners were given a carb-loading buffet the night before and porridge on race morning. Waffles are served daily from 3pm to 5pm.
The lodge is about 200km from Reykjavik, roughly three and a half hours in summer. Rates start at ISK 48,500 per night.