Sat 4.9. Climbing tour to Svartisen

Hoʻopuka ʻia: 04.09.2021

Kau inoa i ka Nupepa

Lots of sun in the morning, it gets cloudy in the afternoon, light rain in the evening.

Today is our lucky day: the sun is shining and we are going on a trip to the Svartisen Glacier. Technically it's closed since August 31st, but on some weekends there is still a boat that takes hikers to the starting point of the hike, and today is one of those days! The boat departs at 12:00 noon from a pier at Kv17, just before Holand, and picks us up at 18:30 in the evening.

Gondula suggests that Gerd can ride his bike to the pier, which he happily agrees to. She will come by car. The bike ride is fantastic, with great views of the surrounding mountains and the fjord, and soon also of the glacier. We meet at the dock where the boat departs across the fjord.

The crossing takes 15 minutes, the hiking trail initially leads relatively flat around two lakes before the ascent to the rocks below the glacier and the strenuous climbing begins.

The ascent is long and very difficult, it goes over many rocks with constantly changing views of the glacier. Gondula is fascinated by the huge rock surfaces and multi-colored rock bands that we cross. They are probably hundreds of millions of years old and were exposed by glaciers.

After about 2 hours we reach the glacier and are exhausted and thrilled. It has become noticeably cooler, we sit on a rock and have lunch.

We are still quite exhausted, but after half an hour we start the descent again. Unfortunately, it gets cloudy and it starts to rain, making the rocks quite slippery. The descent is just as exhausting as the ascent, and we only take our break when we are on the easy part of the trail.

At the dock, we have to wait another three-quarters of an hour until the boat brings everyone back across the fjord. It's also raining lightly during the crossing, it's cold, and we are glad to reach the car and be able to turn on the heating.