Route 1's mountain passes: heights, closures and the ledger days

The short answer: the highest road the Ring Road ledgers cross is not on the Ring Road. Fjarðarheiði, the pass to Seyðisfjörður, tops out at 620 m in Vegagerðin's list of road heights; the highest point of Route 1 itself in that list is Langidalur at Svartfell on Möðrudalsöræfi, 600 m, then Öxnadalsheiði at 540 m. In the dated notices read today, the first pass to close in an autumn storm is whichever one the weather reaches first: on 13–14 October 2026 it was the Ring Road under Eyjafjöll (wind, closed from 05:00), then Öxnadalsheiði and Holtavörðuheiði on uncertainty level; on 24 February 2017 it was Hellisheiði at 09:00, Holtavörðuheiði at 15:00 and Fjarðarheiði and Möðrudalsöræfi at 16:00. Height decides who gets snow; the storm track decides who closes first.

#Heights, from the one official list

Vegagerðin's sheet "Hæð nokkurra vega yfir sjó", dated 22 December 2010, is the only road-height table the administration publishes, and it is still the one its road-elevation references point to. Route 1 entries: Reynisfjall 119 m, Hellisheiði 374 m, Holtavörðuheiði 407 m, Vatnsskarð 420 m, Öxnadalsheiði 540 m, Víkurskarð 325 m, Fljótsheiði 247 m, Mývatnsheiði 335 m, Námaskarð 410 m, Vegaskarð 500 m, Langidalur við Svartfell 600 m, Breiðdalsheiði 470 m. Off Route 1: Fjarðarheiði (93) 620 m, Oddsskarð tunnel 632 m, Þrengsli (39) 288 m, Mosfellsheiði (36) 260 m, Vatnsskarð on Route 94 to Borgarfjörður eystri 431 m, Steingrímsfjarðarheiði (61) 439 m, Dynjandisheiði (60) 500 m. The sheet is sixteen years old; the Víkurskarð figure now describes the free alternative to the Vaðlaheiði tunnel.

#Who closes first, with dates

Two sets of notices, both read 1 November 2026.

October 2026, from umferdin.is as reported by mbl.is (the Vegagerðin pages themselves could not be fetched by the tool used; the mbl text quotes "vef Vegagerðarinnar"): on the evening of 13 October, Route 1 under Eyjafjöll "frá Heimalandi við Markarfljót að Freysnesi" was to close from 05:00 the next morning for a wind forecast, a "mjúk lokun" with staffed closure posts. On 14 October at 08:49, "Öxnadalsheiði er á óvissustigi og gæti því verið lokað með stuttum fyrirvara", with "Brattabrekka, Holtavörðuheiði, Steingrímsfjarðarheiði og vegurinn um Ísafjarðardjúp" on uncertainty level from 10:00. On 15 October at 06:54: snow cover on Holtavörðuheiði and Brattabrekka, ice on Öxnadalsheiði, Hellisheiði and Þrengsli, Steingrímsfjarðarheiði and Dynjandisheiði impassable. On 23 October: ice on Fjarðarheiði, heavy going on Hellisheiði eystri. On 1 November at 13:16, umferdin.is itself (its data feed, read directly) had every one of the six passes "greiðfært" except Holtavörðuheiði, "hálkublettir".

February 2017, from the police notice of 24 February on island.is, which lists that day's closures in order: "09:00 – 18.00 Eyjaföll og Hellisheiði", "15:00 – 21:00 Holtavörðuheiði og Bröttubrekku", "16:00 og fram á kvöld Mývatns- og Möðrudalsöræfi, Fjarðarheiði, Fagridalur og Oddsskarð". Öxnadalsheiði is not in that list.

For Fjarðarheiði there is a longer-run figure: the 2011 parliamentary proposal for a tunnel says Vegagerðin had classed 20–40 days a year on the pass as "vandræðadagar", with spells of up to seven days when crossing was difficult or impossible. It is a 2011 figure about a 620 m pass, and it is why the Seyðisfjörður days below carry a note.

#The crossing count

Read down the columns and the shape of each ledger shows. The seven-day Ring Road has one day with two passes, Day 6 from Akureyri to Borgarnes over Öxnadalsheiði and Holtavörðuheiði, 325 km; it is the day the October notices were about, and the day the daylight post on this site already flags as the longest. The ten-day loop adds Fjarðarheiði as an out-and-back on Day 4, which is the one pass on the site with a published trouble-day count; if the morning map shows it closed, Stuðlagil is the whole day. The ferry journey cannot avoid Fjarðarheiði: Day 6 starts at the Norröna ramp in Seyðisfjörður and the pass is the only road out, which is why the Smyril Line timetable and the Vegagerðin map have to be read together on that morning. The Westfjords loop touches Route 1 only on its last day, over Holtavörðuheiði, but spends Days 3 and 5 on Dynjandisheiði and Steingrímsfjarðarheiði, 500 m and 439 m, which were the two roads listed impassable on 15 October. Breiðdalsheiði is crossed by none of them: every East Iceland leg runs the fjord road through Djúpivogur.

#What to do with it

For a June start nothing here closes. After mid-October the table is a checklist: each day with an entry is a day to open umferdin.is before breakfast.

#Sources

• Vegagerðin, "Hæð nokkurra vega yfir sjó", 22 December 2010 (PDF): https://wp-beta.vegagerdin.is/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/yfir_sjo.pdf
• umferdin.is road-condition feed, read 1 November 2026 at 13:16: https://umferdin.is
• mbl.is quoting umferdin.is: 13 October 2026, https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2026/10/13/loka_hringveginum_vegna_vedursparinnar/ ; 14 October, https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2026/10/14/oxnadalsheidi_a_ovissustigi/ ; 15 October, https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2026/10/15/vetrarfaerd_vida_um_land/ ; 23 October, https://www.mbl.is/frettir/innlent/2026/10/23/vida_halka_a_vegum/
• Lögreglan (island.is), "Lokað fyrir umferð um Kjalarnes", 24 February 2017: https://island.is/s/logreglan/frett/lokad-fyrir-umferd-um-kjalarnes
• Alþingi, proposal on Fjarðarheiðargöng, 140th session (2011), "20–40 dagar á Fjarðarheiði sem vandræðadagar": https://www.althingi.is/altext/raeda/140/rad20111020T175447.html