Folgefonna glacier (Norway), 1-9 August 2015
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Day three. Crossing the glacier!
This was the most interesting day of the whole trip, which started with a steep climb up Nordbakkenuten (without paths), and continued with crossing the Folgefonna glacier. Our route finding was not perfect: when climbing up Nordbakkenuten, we veered right far too much, assuming that moss and bushes are better than rocks. This turned out to be a mistake, we ended up at the bottom of a near vertical wall, and had to use a rope to protect a short pitch.
The blue line shows our track. The arrow shows direction of travel. The tent icon shows our camping spot. Shift-click on the track link will open it in nakarte.me.
Packing away the tents.
Most vulnerable stuff (like sleeping bags) was packed in waterproof bags. Lova' tent was pitched atop some bushes which provided a very soft base.
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A couple of scrambles were challenging. |
We even had to protect one pitch with a rope. |
The view from the top was amazing!
Almost at the top - the glacier is within reach.
We had our lunch, put on our harnesses, roped up and started on the glacier.
We were going up and up, the climb was not steep but still slowed us down.
The sun came out at last! The glacier is heavily crevassed at some edges.
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Resting.
We saw no tracks in the snow - except our own.
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It was sunny but cold.
Looking back we saw a prominent mountain which looked like an elephant. We later learned that this was Hårteigen (1690 м).
We crossed the highest point at last, and started our descent. We saw the mountains on the other side...
... and the sunlit sea. Zoom in to see a ship and wind turbine at the seaside. The tallest peak on the picture is Melderskin.
Mountains as though painted by Roerich...
The edge of the glacier. A guide we met in Fonnabu told us that the glacier plateau this year has around 12-14 meters of snow.
The Fonnabu refuge is not far away.
There are several building which belong to the refuge. This triangular building is a bit further away.
The lake near the refuge. The sign says "Drinking water, no bathing". To be honest, we never even thought of swimming during this trip, the water was very cold.
It was getting dark. We did not have to descent to a lake below the snow line. We found a flat spot shielded from the wind, not far from the Breidablikk refuge. This was our camping spot, with of view of sunlit sea.
After we came off the glacier, the wind picked up very significantly, and some gusts made it difficult to walk. We cooked our dinner in the tent (which we don't normally do) and all but missed the sunset. Overall, this was an amazing day!
