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3500 Square kilometers of barren rocks, mos, snow and ice. That is the Jotunheimen in Norway. A jawdropping beautiful area when you come driving in from the south taking route 55, that immediately reveals the spectator what this high mountain area is all about by showing it's sharp peaks of the Hurrungane mountainrange.
Jotunheimen is also home to Galdhopiggen, Norway's highest mountain, and with that also Scandinavia's and in fact Northern Europe's highest, at 2469 meters (8100 ft). Galdhopiggen is a gabbro peak that is surrounden by seven or eight large glaciers.
It hasn't always had this honour, as previously two other summits were considered to be higher: Snohetta and Glittertind. The latter has only recently proved to be the lower of the two, due to the melting of the meters thick glacier that covered it's summit.
Galdhopiggen can be summited in many different ways, but there's only two that do not require alpine skills and equipment. These two routes can therefore be really crowded on summer(holi)days. The first route starts at Juvasshytta, a mountainhut at 1850 meters. This route does require a guide though, as it crosses the Styggebrean, one of the three largest glaciers around Galdhopiggen. It is a very popular route, as it is only a 3 hour walk up.
The other route starts at a mountainhut/village called Spiterstulen, at about 1100 meters. This route has an ascend of about 1300 meters, and although there's no alpine skills required, it's still a long push to the top and back.
And crowded. Boy was it crowded.
We love our mountain adventures partly/mainly (undecided) because of the calm, the feeling of being away from it all, feeling small and insignificant, the nature and the loneliness. Well, forget about all that on Galdhopiggen. There's not a lot of things I'm good at. But it is with a bit of pride that I can say that when it comes to taking pictures, I am the mr Miyagi of not having anyone in the photo even when it's been taken in a crowd. The below pictures do not represent the actual circumstances, as we were walking in line with some other 100 to 200 people to reach the summit.
There was an advantage to this though. The weather wasn't all good on us and at times we were walking in thick mist or whiteouts. Getting lost or offtrack was impossible though. Just follow the rucksack 'n' @rse that are in front of you. They in turn follow the ones in front of them. And so on...the march of the penquins.
From Spiterstulen there's a bridge leading to the start of the walk. This is the view south, taken from the bridge:
Soon you leave Spiterstulen behind. Here it can be seen in the background:
The river we crossed is called Bukkeholsbekken. Once higher up, the view on it reappears from behind the slope:
The first small patches of snow are appearing:
And the larger ones we had to cross. The going through the snow is tough: the combination of a steep slope and soft, slightly watery snow.
Snow and boulderfields each take their turn. Both seem endless and it's the occasional uplift of clouds and the views it offers that keep the spirits high. Most of the time we saw nothing but cag though.
Most of the walk is just a steady going up. It's just a few time that before reascending, you have to descend a little. This is the mrs making her way down a steep cliff, just past Svellinosbrean, another of the three largest glaciers surrouding the mountain:
One might think: what is this jacob complaining about, these are pretty decent views. Well, this is an example of the largest part of the ascend:
And this is what it looked like when skies were temporarily clearing up:
So after a long push up, following the one in front of you, we arrived at the summit, where a small mountainhut can be found. Both the summit and the hut were crowded though, as at the same time as we did, a guided group came from the glacier. Noise. Loud voices. Screaming kids and punishing parents. This is not my idea of enjoying a summit. But as they all sought the warmth inside the hut, crowding it like ants, we stayed outside and enjoyed a bite and a hot soup in the cold. This is the mrs in front of the hut, not particularly enjoying the views:
But all swell that ends well: cloudlift. And that left us breathless. The guided group had gone and we had our views. This was so beautiful:
Ofcourse we weren't alone on the summit, so a very kind lady made this shot of us:
And we both took our own:
But nothing lasts forever. And I know this face. It's the: "can we go now, it's really starting to get cold now" face:
So reluctantly we went back down again. The open skies stayed though, offering us views on the descend we didn't have during the ascend:
And these are the guided groups crossing the glacier, giving a nice perspective on scale:
By this time the old knees were screaming for attention again. Throbbing heavy pains. I thought I'd learned in the few years that I've been alive, that all things move towards their end. Well, this path didn't. It went on forever. So I was very happy with the traditional way to come down Galdhopiggen: with the bumslide. There everywhere: strange traces through the snow, nicely rounded, some bigger, some smaller. All the crowds that visit this mountain everyday all go bumsliding down. The first bumslide is the steepest. And it's only after this first one that the mrs reminded me I was carrying the actioncam as well. So next video's bumslide is not the steepest and therefore not the fastest, but still it gives a good impression of the fastest descend I've ever undertaken despite my hurting knees:
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A very impressive mountain, set in a simply stunning national park. Don't be put off by the crowds: the experience of the mountain makes up for it, easily.
