Galdhöpiggen - Norway!

 

Me and Nadja set out to Heathrow to catch the flight to Norway, to meet our fellow mountaineering friends there, Ann-Kristin and Marianne.

I was really happy to finally be on the way to climb the highest peak of Northern Europe, Galdhöpiggen, with its 2469m above sea level. Not the hardest climb and only a day tour, but still, its beautiful and on my bucket list. There is something with the Norwegian mountains, they are just so amazingly beautiful and inviting..

We met the girls at Oslo Airport and started our drive to Jotunheimen. 5h later we arrived just outside Lom, a small mountain village. We were pretty high and the fresh air is amazing, and the rivers and streams of glacier water are everywhere, icecold and with such a fresh taste. We arrived to Ann-Kristins friends cabin and started to take in the atmosphere.

 

 

There were cows walking around nearby and the river was quite big with its pourling water. We took our bucket from the cabin and went to fill it with water, and just the lovely routine of kneeling down by the edge of the river to get drinking water as a nice feeling. So.. true and raw, back to basics. There were snow patches around and such lovely quiet scenery. The mountain was resting..

 

We slept really well in our cabin, the wind was blowing outside and we were hoping that it would calm down before morning. Nadja was a bit worried about the light, as it never goes dark on this side of the world during summer, and she was worried how she would be able to sleep.  At midnight it was as light as midday, which is pretty fascinating when you are not used to it.

The lovely cabin

We woke up around 8am and slowly started to boil water and make breakfast. Chatting away, we kind of forgot about time, and realized that we were a bit delayed. We had decided (based on my wish..) to do the longer route that takes in total around 9-10h from Spiterstulen straight up the mountain, instead of the shorter route from Juvashytta which takes you over the glacier and demands a guide as there are crevasses in the ice which you of course should avoid. I wanted to maximize the trip and therefore take the longer route and as I have a lot of respect for glaciers, I wasn’t too keen on that anyway.

We arrived to the cabins at Spiterstulen and started our trek up the first peak. It was a nice trek with not too many hard elements, and we crossed some parts of snow. I loved the feeling of being out again, the mountain air, the smell of nature and the raw mountain with its small streams of strong power is for me so amazing and respectful. I have learned to respect the mountains and its spirits, I always feel very humble when walking up these peaks.

 

Nadia didn’t have the same experience as the rest of us and she soon realized that she had expected a different kind of hike of a more flat kind. Considering that this was her first harder hike, we were all very impressed by her stamina and attitude, the rest of us would probably have given up a long time ago with a very unhappy face. We weren’t fast, but we made progress.

Coffee break in the mist..

Soon we entered fog and storm, it was even sometimes hard to keep on the feet, so sometimes we had to kneel down and let the wind pass. As the fog was so thick, we had to chance to see what was around us more than a few meters, but we could hear pretty hard waterfalls to the left. We met other groups as well which advised us to keep steady in the middle as there were steep falls on each side. I must admit that it was pretty exciting in various ways to walk on the huge rocks which that part of the trek consists of, when not knowing really what is on the sides. Again, respect for the mountain.

In these conditions we cant get too far away from each other..

After 5-6h of walking, we reached a high peak, and the waterfall sounded to be even closer. I glanced back to see how Nadia was doing behind me, when the fog suddenly cleared for a moment and opened up the most amazing scenery. I am always baffled by the peaks and the steep sides of the mountains.. I cant stop looking. I quickly found my camera to take some pictures before the clouds would come in again, and I kind of made it. Given this extra push of adrenaline, we moved on.

Suddenly the glacier below Galdhöpiggen showed itself..

Me, Ann-kristin and Marianne agreed that it was probably the worst conditions we ever walked in together, which added to our great admiration of Nadias efforts. However, we agreed that as long as it didn’t get worse and we couldn’t see the trail marks anymore, we would continue.

Nadia conquering one of the snowy peaks

When we got further the sky opened and we could see more and more blue patches, and soon we were welcomed by the most amazing mountain ranges around, snow caped peaks and valleys, glaciers and it just didn’t end. We could see the other route from Juvashytta and the glacier, and I was quietly happy I was on this side and not there. Its probably very safe, and funny enough they have Nepali Sherpas guiding the groups, so I would have been more than safe with those experienced guides.

We had something to eat as we stopped and when we realized we had needed almost 6h to get to this point and the time was 5pm, and as we now had visibility of the peak and the steep patch that was left to walk, we realized that it wouldn’t be wise to continue. A bit demotivated by this fact after such a long walk through rough weather we took our pictures, and then we turned back.

Top of Galdhöpiggen in the far back..

We had seen a lot of other mountaineers sliding down on their backside on the snow patches and glacier parts, and we were very excited to do the same! Ann-Kristin and Marianne had rain trousers which are perfect for this, me and Nadia only had our hiking trousers so that had to do. We got to the top of the first peak and sat down to slide down. This was hilarious, it went so fast and I couldn’t stop laughing! Such a great adrenaline top-up! We all laughed and it was a nice feeling. This was also very good for us in terms of time, as we would have needed so much time down as well as for a beginner its scarier to walk down normally, which takes longer time. But this way, it was a win-win.

Nadia and Ann Kristin having a break

The second to last slide we did, had a very deep path from previous sliders. It was icy and went really fast and we loved it.. until we go to the point where there was ice on the sides too, which we all bumped into in high speed.. oh my lord, was that painful! But, nevertheless, it was worth it.

 

We ended the trail by crossing some streams and saying hi to some sheep that live up on the mountain sides during the summer. At 11pm me and Nadia joined the other two girls at the lodging house, they were comfortably seated and Marianne had treated her to a well deserved beer! I promise we all slept very well that night and woke up with some what bruises and ache, but all worth it!

Above; Spiterstulen down in the valley.
Below; Nadia showing the mountain, we went passed the peak in the back and bit more..

We are going to come back and do a second attempt to reach the top, as we were so close. I still want to stick to the same route, as like my other cousin Kjartan said, the other route is for retired people J