|
||||||||
|
|
1 June
1997 Home
of the Giants SIMON
WILLIS finds a Norwegian nirvana for hill walkers. When a child
is born in Norway, right after the midwife slaps it on the backside, I
suspect she whips out a tape measure and sizes it up for its first rucksack.
Infants don't learn to walk, but to hike. Christening gowns are replaced by
cagoules. Because here the great outdoors is not a pastime, it's a passion.
Try to arrange a business trip at Easter or in July and you'll find the
"closed" sign dangling from the office door. Sitting on a platform
of Oslo station one Saturday morning, watching this migration to the
mountains, I decided that these are definitely my kind of people. I planned
to follow them to one of their favourite destinations, Jotunheimen National
Park. To British eyes it looks familiar, but somehow tougher, more rugged
than the scenery back home. It's like the English Lake District after it's
been weight training, or Scotland on steroids. I'd planned a six day walk
across the Jotunheimen, the "Home of the Giants", visiting the
summits of Norway's two highest mountains along the way. If that
sounds rather too strenuous, let me quickly reassure you. This is not some
boy's own adventure of the "up-the-Matterhorn-by-pogo-stick"
variety. It's simply a superb walking holiday, with first rate accommodation,
which can be enjoyed by most regular hill walkers, including families. They
reckon that, at one time or another, every Norwegian climbs the Besseggen
ridge. On the day I arrived, they all seemed to be doing it at once. A six
hour train and bus journey had taken me to the door of the Gjendesheim hut
where, the following morning, I shouldered my pack and began the climb to
find out what all the fuss was about. The first hill was nothing special,
just a curving bulk of rock swarming with people. From it's summit, a second
nearby hill appeared equally unimpressive, but equally popular. Wait a
minute? How were all those people getting from one hill to the other? That's
when I saw the Besseggen Ridge. Connecting
these mountains is a spectacular, slender spine of stone. It dips down and
rears up again like the neck of an unfeasibly large brontosaurus. In ideal
conditions it requires considerable care. In a crowd it seemed positively
perilous. The playwright Henrik Ibsen had his hero Peer Gynt ride a reindeer
along here, and leap safely into the lake far below, but today he wouldn't
have enough room to swing an antler. I suppose the Lake District gets like
this at weekends, but I'm sorry, queuing has no place whatsoever in my
repertoire of mountain experiences. I spent a gloomy night, haunted by
nightmares of hiking in single file. As fast as
the dawn mist evaporates, my doubts were dispelled, simply by walking a
little deeper into the mountains. Soon I stood alone at the head of a long,
curving valley, watching a herd of reindeer move among the rocks, searching
out patches of fresh lichen. I picked my way down through the jumble of rocks
to the shore of a lonely lake, where I sat and watched while they finished
their breakfasts. There were no other people. There was no need to hurry.
This was more like it. Norway is
not short of solitude, despite my experience of the first day. After Iceland,
it has the second lowest population density, about twenty seven people in
every square mile. The sheer size of this country only becomes apparent when
you look at a map of Europe, because if you were to cut around it's border,
and pivot the whole nation on its most southerly point, it would stretch past
Rome. And yet in a country, some sixteen hundred miles long, you'll find
fewer people than in the East Midlands. Wide open spaces are a speciality of
this land. "User
friendly", is the approach the Norwegians have taken to the mountains of
the Jotunheimen. Every so often, the trails have been marked in paint with a
red letter 'T' by Den Norske Turistforening, the mountain touring
association. DNT also produces sketch maps which show how long it takes to
cover different sections of trail, and the consistent timings are quickly
adapted to an individual's own pace. But what makes
this country a particularly attractive place for walkers is the extensive
network of mountain huts. There's none of this lugging tents lark. In the
Jotunheimen you travel light, with just a change of clothes. In other, out of
the way, mountain areas you need to carry your own food and sleeping bag, but
in popular areas like this, the staff provide cooked meals and the raw
materials to make your own breakfast and packed lunch. Some huts have
dormitories, others have double rooms. Some are privately run, most are
operated by DNT. They cost between £30 and £50 for full board. In a few
cases the word "hut" could be grounds for legal action. In
Spiterstulen Hut I stood open mouthed, squinting up at a slowly revolving
glitter ball which was reflecting coloured spotlights across a wooden dance
floor. As if that wasn't luxury enough, there was a even heated swimming pool
next door. This was no hut, this was a hotel! It's
biggest attraction, and indeed the largest chunk of rock and ice in the whole
country, sits right outside the front door. Galdhopiggen is not the hardest
mountain to climb, but at 2469m (8,100 ft) it is Norway's highest. However,
the long haul from valley to summit and back in one long day seems
unnecessarily severe, particularly when history has provided a fascinating
alternative. More than a hundred years ago, a mountain guide called Knut Ole
Vole was regularly guiding groups to Galdhopiggen's summit. He worried that
the long climb was a bit much for some of his clients, so in 1864 he cleared
a patch of land on the shoulder of the mountain and built a hut where they
could break their journey. The
Juvvasshytta is still there today and so are the Grand daughters of its
builder. Tora and Ragnhild are well past the age of getting a bus pass but
they remain very much in charge. The warped wooden walls are hung with fading
photographs, showing the history and development of their historic home. This
is what a mountain hut should be. I'd happily swap all the amenities of the
modern lodges for a pine panelled room in which the air conditioning is
operated by wedging a clothes peg under the sash window. Knut Ole
Vole, good businessman that he was, would be delighted to see that the guided
trips across the glacier to Galdhopiggen's summit are now more popular than
ever. The smooth, gentle snow field is deceptively beautiful. A maze of
potentially lethal crevasses lurk under the fresh white cover, and to attempt
to cross alone or unroped would be like playing Russian roulette with five
chambers loaded. Along with a crowd of other hikers, I signed up for one of
the guided trips, realising too late that my bad dream of five nights ago was
actually coming true. Like some bizarre conga line, I counted fifty seven
people, walking in single file, all tied onto the rope of our guide. Statens
Kartverk, Norway's national geographical survey has placed its cairn on top
of the country's highest mountain, and that's not the only artificial edifice
on this summit. Two and a half thousand meters above the fjords is a cafe
selling hot drinks, chocolate and the tackiest t-shirts you could imagine. A
helicopter flies the supplies in once a year, water comes from melting snow,
and the staff sleep in the small building for days at a time. Knut Ole Vole
himself put the first wooden kiosk here a few years after building the
Juvvasshytta, and although the elements have successfully shaken off four
previous constructions, the latest has survived for well over a decade. At the
time I felt it was an undignified crown for such a fine mountain. On
reflection, I think it shows the Norwegian's essentially practical approach
to mountain tourism. In such a
vast country, there are acres of untouched wilderness for those who really
want to get away from it all. The Jotunheimen, by contrast, is their
adventure playground. The trail markers and the huts are simply recreational
aids which allow walkers of all abilities to take up temporary residence in
the Home of the Giants. Travel
Brief When to
go: Summer in the mountains lasts from the end of June
to mid-September, with the peak season from 15th July until 15th August Accommodation:
I used staffed huts/hotels. The price of dinner,
bed, breakfast, packed lunch and thermos varied from £30 - £50. Hut details
are available from DNT ,Den Norske Turistforening. There are discounts for
members, and you can join at The Adventure Traveller, Compston Rd, Ambleside,
Cumbria LA22 9DJ - Tel 015394 33285 Camping:
Increasingly popular, but a charge is made if you
camp near a hut. Food is expensive in shops and resupply can be difficult. Maps: DNT
produce a sketch map showing times between huts. There is a useful 1:100,000
map of the Jotunheimen. The 1:50,000 maps are not necessary. Books: Mountain
Hiking in Norway by Erling Welle-Strand. Pub. Nortrabooks ISBN 82-90103-64-6 Scandinavian
Mountains by Peter Lennon. Pub. West Col. ISBN 906227-32-1 Equipment:
Hope for shorts & t-shirt weather, but prepare
for biting cold and rain. A change of clothes for hut evenings is useful, as
are sports sandals which also help in river crossings. Sunglasses and hat for
glaciers. For safety I used a ski pole and carried a goretex bivi bag and
down sweater. If using huts travel light. Glacier
guides: Can be booked on the day Flights:
Braathens fly from Newcastle and Gatwick to Oslo
& Bergen. Trains,
boats & busses: All are of a very high standard
but a timetable is vital because some routes have only one service every
other day. Contact Norwegian State Railways Travel Bureau, Norway House,
Trafalgar Square, 21/24 Cockspur Street, London, SW1Y 5DA. Tel: 0171 930 6666
My
Route Travel:
Evening flight Newcastle - Oslo. Train to Otta. Bus to Gjendesheim Day 1:
Gjendesheim - Memurubu over Besseggen ridge (6 hrs). I later discovered that
a ferry down lake Gjende will transport rucksacks Day 2:
Memurubu - Glitterheim (7 hrs) Day 3:
Glitterheim - Spiterstulen via summit of Glittertind 2464m (8084 ft) (7 hrs) Day 4:
Spiterstulen - Juvvasshytta (3 hrs) Day 5:
Climb of Galdhopiggen 2469m (8,100 ft) & return 2469 m (5 hrs) Day 6:
Juvvasshytta - Roysheim (5hrs). Bus to Sogndal Travel: Bus Sogndal - Leikanger. Express boat to
Bergen. Flight to Newcastle |
|||||||