Back again, 18 years later
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 05.08.24 | Austerdalsbreen | 420m | – | Luster, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Tuesday: This was the last full day with our friends Eva & Bjørn, visiting us in Sogndal. Anne wanted to take them to Austerdalsbreen glacier, as she had “work” to take care of there.
By “work” I don’t mean to belittle her job. It’s just insane that she gets paid to go places like this.
I decided to take some hours off work to join them.
I had been to this glacier before, back in 2006 when I had a most memorable trip with Bjørn Eirik and Ragnar from Tungestølen, up Austerdalsbreen, ice-climbing on Odinnsbreen glacier, camping at Kvitesteinsvarden, across Lokebreen glacier the next day and down a hilarious steep mountainside to Langedalen.
The year before (in 2005), I was in a group of 5 hiking up via Midtnovi, crossing Opptakshaugane and descending via Nystøylnovi. That was my first visit to this area.
As such, I look forward to revisiting this area.
Getting to Austerdalsbreen means taking the long drive from Hafslo to Veitastrond – and then to the end of the road at Tungestølen. The drive to Veitastrond offers some scary tunnels, if you’re not used to pitch dark, single lane tunnels.
But the reward is awaiting. This is a breathtaking area!
In 1894, the mountaineering pioneer William C. Slingsby discovered this area and called it “the finest ice scenery in Europe”. I guess he had “been around” and knew what he was talking about.
Tungestølen was built in 1909 and was a meeting point and basecamp for mountaineers, seeking to explore the surrounding mountains and glaciers.
102 years later, in 2011 – Tungestølen got devastated by the hurricane “Dagmar”. Tungestølen “2.0” saw the light in 2019.
We hoped this hike would treat Bjørn’s knees kindly. The vertical gain is modest.
There were plenty of tourists all around. The Norwegian glaciers are very popular. At least, the few ones left that you can hike to.
We were all blown away by the beauty and even Karma looked impressed!
After a while, we descended to the valley floor.
For the most part, the trail is quite visible and easy to follow.
In a couple of places, the route isn’t 100% obvious…
OK, enough of the march up the valley. We wanted to see glaciers!
Just one hill left…
Well, we weren’t quite there yet. But at least we got a teaser…
And there it was – Austerdalsbreen with the stunning glaciers Tor and Odin above.
Posing time!
Anne’s “work” was to replace worn out signs which advise tourists not to proceed beyond this point. Of course, there are plenty of visitors that has no respect for a good advice. And some do pay the price for that.
Beyond this point, hikers were exposed to rock fall from the mountain. As such, the danger has nothing to do with the glacier. It’s only if you’re stupid enough (like we were in 2006) to go all the way to the Tor & Odin glaciers, that you risk getting huge chunks of ice on your head.
I wanted to return to the car by 4pm so Anne couldn’t claim overtime. I could not have survived that.
I am joking, of course…
We had lunch by the drain from the glacier and were annoyed by a drone just above our heads. Even if this is a National Park (Jostedalsbreen) flying a drone was by that time not illegal. But the guy operating the drone quickly understood we were not happy with having it above our heads and upon return, the guy flew the drone on the other side of the valley.
Then it was time to return.
The locals were chilling and displayed no stress when Karma was walking by. Karma hardly looked their way.
It was great to be back. No doubt about it. I looked forward to getting back home and compare pictures of the glacier, with my 2006 photos. How much had the glacier retracted?
The most important question was of course – did our friends enjoy this hike? Oh yes, they did!
Karma seemed confused that there was no mountain top involved, but relaxed when she got her treats at the glacier viewpoint.
I was a bit eager to get back to work. I was on-duty call, and my colleagues would have my back for a few hours, but not the entire working day. As such, I parted with the others and put up a good pace (along with Karma) back to Tungestølen. I had my own car waiting there…
In the afternoon, I compared pictures. At first glance, I didn’t feel that the glacier had retracted as much as I had feared. At least not the Tor and Odin glaciers. Which was good news. These glaciers will still make people happy for more years to come…
Trip statistics: 12,2km, 475 vertical meters, 3h:50m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max/Samsung Galaxy) from the hike:
