Ágúst Atli Atlason

Ágúst Atli is an Icelandic mountain guide and co-founder of Private Iceland, with over six years of professional guiding experience across Iceland’s most remote and varied terrain. Equally comfortable leading relaxed journeys through the Highlands or complex travel on ice and snow, he brings a calm, safety-focused presence and an exploratory mindset to every journey.

His guiding background includes backpacking expeditions, glacier traverses, ice cave exploration, and technical ice climbing throughout Iceland, including crossings of Europe’s largest ice cap. Internationally, he has taught ice climbing clinics at the Ice Fest in Ouray, Colorado. He is fully certified through the Association of Icelandic Mountain Guides (AIMG) as a Hard Ice Guide and Ice Cave Guide, and is currently one level shy of full Alpine Trekking Guide certification. He also served for two years on the board of AIMG, contributing to the development and professional standards of guiding in Iceland.

He is a certified Wilderness First Responder and an active member of the local Search and Rescue team in Öræfi – experience that informs a measured, practical approach to safety rooted in real world decision making.

Alongside his mountain career, he studied tourism and travel at the Icelandic School of Tourism and has a deep understanding of Iceland’s geology, volcanoes, glaciers, and sagas. His guiding style blends landscape, history, and lived experience, whether traveling by modified 4×4 through the Highlands or moving deliberately across glaciated terrain.

Known for his steady leadership and adaptability, he excels at meeting guests where they are and guiding them confidently beyond their expectations. He values the shared experience of travel, from strenuous ice-cap crossings to quiet, unhurried exploration and believes the most meaningful journeys are shaped as much by people as by place.