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A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway

A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway


Postby jacob » Fri Aug 11, 2017 7:58 am

Date walked: 28/07/2017

Distance: 10 km

Ascent: 300m

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I'll call this route the Sognefjellshytta circular. Not because it actually is called that, but because anyone with a map of Jotunheimen, or knowledge of the region will understand were it is situated.
Sognefjellshytta is a large mountainhut with restaurant and sleeping facilities along highway 55. From the hut, there's several walks going deep into the Jotunheimen to other smaller and way more isolated mountainhuts like Ingjerdbu, Skogadalsboen and Olavsbu.

It is possible though to commence a walk towards Skogadalsboen, but turn back at a junction and make it a circular back to Sognefjellshytta. This is a fairly level walk with a maximum ascent of roughly some 300 or 400 meters. I could consult the map and really count the intervals, but nah, this will have to do.

We did the walk clockwise, which means there's two possible parking places to start from, the one at the hytte itself, or a smaller one just north up the road. As soon as you're out of your car at the smaller parking place, you find yourself in the Jotunheimen wilderness:

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The first thing that really catches your eyes though, is the Boverbrean, a small arm of the much bigger glacier Smorstabbrean. The overall weather was a bit greyish and it depended a little bit on where you stood, but the photos don't do the glacier justice: the blue came shining through from it's depths, instead of the greyish colour you see in the pictures:

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But I would be lying if I said there weren't some blue skies at times, and some sunshine here and there. We had a wonderful time just walking, not climbing high peaks, looking forward to what was still to come, and backwards to the omnipresent view on the glacier.

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All subwater patches of snow and ice where shining in a beautiful blue, like a light had been lit underneath it. The glacial water had a minty green not see through colour to it instead:

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And on we went, through harsh but beautiful nature. The paths are good to find as most paths in Norway are maintained by the DNT, who paint red capital T's on rocks, to show the way. These paths are called Sti, which for the English is pronounced as Stee.

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This photo was taken on some sort of bealach. From here we descended a little into another valley. As opposed to the previous part of the walk, this valley had no glacial lakes, but countless wild streaming burns and waterfalls:

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It was from this valley that the biggest climb of the walk was made, some 300 meters up a hill, whose summit roughly marks the halfway point and has the previously mentioned junction. Going to the smaller mountainhuts, you turn left, going back to the startingpoint by making the circular, you go right. These photos where taken during the ascent and on top of the hill, where the weather worsened not to get better again:

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It was also there that a large bird of prey was soaring over our head, screaming like crazy and defying us by behaviour. I guess we must have been close to it's nest. I do hope that someone can help identify this bird by the best picture I was able to make of it:

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Wether it was the weather or not: the landscape on the returnroute seemed to be much grimmer. Beautiful but harsh and with a proper "out of this world" feel to it:

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A kilometer or two, three before the end of the walk the first views on a mountain called Fannaraken (2068m) opened up. We would be doing Fannaraken the next day, so although it was mostly covered in clouds, I tried to get some proper shots of it as soon as there was a little cloudlift:

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In conclusion: a very nice and beatiful walk, offering al lot for relatively little effort. Great for children, those of lesser fitness, anyone sore of the high peak the day before or just anyone out to enjoy rough tundra landscape.
Last edited by jacob on Sat Aug 12, 2017 1:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway

Postby Mal Grey » Fri Aug 11, 2017 10:33 am

What a country, eh? The glacial scenery is wonderful.

The bird may be a rough-legged buzzard, I believe they're the most common raptor around there. Unless it was truly huge in which case it could have been golden eagle, but think the buzzard is more likely with the paler underwing with dark patches. Did it have feathery legs?
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Re: A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway

Postby jacob » Sat Aug 12, 2017 10:41 am

Mal Grey wrote:What a country, eh? The glacial scenery is wonderful.

The bird may be a rough-legged buzzard, I believe they're the most common raptor around there. Unless it was truly huge in which case it could have been golden eagle, but think the buzzard is more likely with the paler underwing with dark patches. Did it have feathery legs?


The country is fenomenal. This was our second visit to Norway and I've grown to appreciate it so much more.
I love birds, but know nothing about them. So I had to look up your rough legged buzzard, but I think you might be right. I can't quite remember details like feathery legs or not. I saw its wings and size and thought of nothing but eagle myself. But I think that's more hope than determination. I have to admit it is a bit frustrating for us to have visited Norway for 3 weeks 3 years ago and four weeks this time, without ever having seen any wildlife apart from an agressive pitbull style lemming and a treemarten. :(
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Re: A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway

Postby Alteknacker » Sat Aug 19, 2017 8:33 am

Wild country indeed, even if it is well-signed walk - as you say, a real other-worldly feel.

Takes a bit of craziness to look for snow and wintery weather in the middle of summer though... :roll:
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Re: A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway

Postby jacob » Sat Aug 19, 2017 10:17 am

Alteknacker wrote:Wild country indeed, even if it is well-signed walk - as you say, a real other-worldly feel.

Takes a bit of craziness to look for snow and wintery weather in the middle of summer though... :roll:


Haha, well, you're not the first to call me crazy. The wintery weather however doesn't start before 800 or 900 meters and up. Below those altitudes the weather overall was fine with an average of 15-17 celcius.
Any warmer for me is too hot.
The mrs, who does love the warm, and I have this agreement to switch summerholidays with on and off a hot and a "cold" country. Last year's Croatia's 30-and-well-up-celcius gave me the right to this holiday.
Good thing were the long days. Sunrise at 3 in the morning, dusk at 23:30. No headtorches required for a nightly visit to the toilets.
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Re: A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway

Postby Mal Grey » Sun Aug 20, 2017 8:35 pm

jacob wrote:The country is fenomenal. This was our second visit to Norway and I've grown to appreciate it so much more.
I love birds, but know nothing about them. So I had to look up your rough legged buzzard, but I think you might be right. I can't quite remember details like feathery legs or not. I saw its wings and size and thought of nothing but eagle myself. But I think that's more hope than determination. I have to admit it is a bit frustrating for us to have visited Norway for 3 weeks 3 years ago and four weeks this time, without ever having seen any wildlife apart from an agressive pitbull style lemming and a treemarten. :(



I'd love to see a pitbull lemming!

We too, saw little wildlife in Sweden/Norway. The area is supposedly one of the best places to see moose, brown bear, wolf, beaver, wolverine and even muskoxen. We saw a squirrel....

I did find some moose-poo :lol:
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Re: A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway

Postby jacob » Tue Aug 22, 2017 4:36 pm

Mal Grey wrote:I'd love to see a pitbull lemming!

We too, saw little wildlife in Sweden/Norway. The area is supposedly one of the best places to see moose, brown bear, wolf, beaver, wolverine and even muskoxen. We saw a squirrel....

I did find some moose-poo :lol:


You ask, we deliver:

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The little rascal was screaming at us non stop. Stood it's ground firmly and didn't move an inch (hence the pitbull). It's a pity I only filmed the last 12 seconds of it. The running away was not fear, it was done in anger and frustration that us as well wouldn't move.
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Re: A fairly level walk in Jotunheimen, Norway

Postby Mal Grey » Tue Aug 22, 2017 7:17 pm

Excellent!

I heard rustling when I was walking, but never saw anything furry with attitude...
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