Folgefonna glacier (Norway), 1-9 August 2015
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The first day. The arrival.
We got to Bergen from London in the afternoon. The airport is well connected to the city centre with regular buses. We even avoided queuing for the tickets as we bought them over the internet in advance. We had very little time to buy gas in Bergen and catch a bus to Odda, but it worked out OK. The bus journey to Odda is four hours long and includes a transfer - but buses in Norway are very punctual so this was not a problem. There was a couple of ferry crossings en route. The last 10 km from Sunndal to Odda the bus runs in a tunnel under the glacier.
The blue line shows our track . The arrow shows the direction of travel. The bus icon shows the bus stop, and the tent icon shows our camping spot. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.
Odda was unwelcoming. We got out of the bus under pouring rain, put on our waterproofs and went up, first through the village and then further along the road towards Buer.
We pitched out tents on the river bank. It wasn't easy to find a camping spot, as the farmland is fenced off. We are not sure whether our camping spot was legal but we did not cause any harm. We could have camped on the other side of the river near a layby but we did not way to camp so close to the road. We made good use of our large red tent which saved us from rain on many occasions. It is so nice to cook and eat with a roof about your head, particularly in the rain!
Day two. A short glacier trip.
The blue line shows our track . The arrow shows the direction of travel. The tent icon shows our camping spot. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.
The rain did not stop in the morning, so we had to pack our backpacks underneat the red tent. This is much better than under the rain, but takes much longer. As soon as we were ready to go, the rain stopped. There were lots of strawberry along the road, so our progress was slow.
The mountains were bathing in the clouds.
We followed the road up to Buer and then went on a well-marked path. We came across a river bank with lots of cairns. Looks like every passer-by makes one. Sonya was no different.
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Can you find two stone archers, behind Sonya on the river bank? |
One couldn't help but take a picture of this cairn. |
After several hours of hard work, we reached Nedre Buarbreen glacier. In order to get on to the glacier, one would have to cross a stream using a zipwire. This was not in our plans, we were going to climb on a neighbouring glacier. Here the path (which is shown on the map) turns sharply right. It is quite hard to find, it is a small path which starts near a hut. The rain replaced the sun; then the sun came out again, and we saw a double rainbow.
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Steep ascent towards the other glacier, Øvre Buarbreen.
We had a rest by a small snow field. Sonya built two little snowmen.
It took us a while to find a flat camping spot. In the end we had to go back down to the bottom of the snow field. All flat spots above were covered by snow. The lake in the distance is Sandvinvatnet where we started our journey the previous day. Zoom in to see the houses in Buer, and a bag full of firewood which Victor patiently carried for the campfire in the evening. We quickly pitched our tents, and went for a tour on the Øvre Buarbreen glacier.
Cotton grass.
View from glacier.
The amount of snow this year is unprecented. Usually the glaciers are completely free of snow at this altitude. We only managed to get up to the snow line on the glacier, as we did not have time to rope up.
The glacier gives birth to a rapid stream.
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Floating snow field. |
Where did this poor birch tree leaf come from? |
Victor and Lova built a belay station and went down to explore a crevasse.
The view from inside the glacier.
It was getting cold, and we hurried back to our camp.
Our little campfire. It is prohibited to light fires in Norway in the Summer in the woodland, due to the risk of forest fires. We assumed that this would not be a problem above the tree line.
