Jack Wolfskin tour book Norway

JOTUNHEIMEN NATIONAL PARK NORWAY

For days we have studied the European weather charts for snow. Finally we fix the date for our trekking trip to Norway: the beginning of April 2011. Our starting point: Lom – the gateway to the Jotunheimen. Refreshed after our first night in the B&B, we’re ready for our “outdoors at home” adventure.

FACE TO FACE WITH THE SNOW

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REPACK Not all roads lead all the way to Jotunheimen: the road is completely iced over, our car doesn’t manage it to the starting point of the trek. Everything has to be re-packed and we finally reach Leirdalen after an adventurous ride on skidos.

MEET THE TEAM Claudia While the storm’s raging outside whose face lights up in the tent? Claudia! All it takes is a piece of chocolate! When she’s not studying, she’s off out somewhere pursuing her favourite activities: climbing, trekking, surfing and cycling.

Michael Pulka is the taboo word of the trip! He is part of the pulka duo on this trip – but however heavy the kit is, there’s always space for a little bottle of pear schnaps!

He’s mad about all mountain and water sports – but without the pulka!

Henning He is the second part of the pulka duo and a guitar-playing lover of the outdoors.

Unfortunately, the guitar in the Norwegian hut had seen better days – so there was time to make pancakes.

Off we head towards the Gjendebu Hut. No sign of the forecasted rain!

SNOW PEELING IN GJENDEBU Spoke too soon: the promised rain eventually comes and makes up for lost time. We arrive at the hut in Gjendebu feeling as if we’ve just had a facial courtesy of the battering rain, snow and ice.

Like everywhere in Norway, the hut is well equipped and provides us with cosy shelter. Half the countries of Europe are represented here among the trekkers. After a delicious pancake breakfast, we set off again next day.

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THE HUT WEAVES ITS MAGIC

Well fortified, the two lads get off to a good start even with the heavy laden pulka. One pulls it uphill, the other puts the brake on it downhill.

Typical Norway: the weather changes constantly. At last, the sun comes out

and reveals the unspoilt mountainous landscape of the Jotunheimen National Park.

HOME OF THE GIANTS That’s what Jotunheimen actually means.

We are in the middle of Scandinavia’s highest mountain range. Altogether, there are more than 250 peaks above 1900 m and 20 of them are even higher than 2300 m. Beneath the snow cover 60 smaller glaciers are concealed.

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A GIANT IN THE TENT

No, Michael’s just happy to have a pear schnapps to warm himself up!

After a dramatic change in the weather we put up our tent amid snow flurries.

Using ski poles and spades, we make it more secure with snow – there’s a terrible draught in the “Home of the Giants” and we are happy to be sitting inside out of the storm. Skål and goodnight!

Snow flurries and blueberries: on the way to the glacier we struggle against cold winds. A handful of blueberries buried in the snow remind us of last summer.

GLIMPSES OF GLACIERS We can’t wait to start the long downhill ski and on our way to the best starting point we have a moment of excitement when Claudia accidentally discovers a crevasse in the glacier.

Then at last it’s downhill all the way: we leave the “Home of the Giants” and enjoy long sweeping runs in the soft snow on our way to Leirdalen and Lom.

... and the roads are still iced over!

OUR COMPANIONS ON THE TRIP EXPEDITION DOWN JACKET They don’t come much warmer than this!

Filled with high performance down and using windproof, extremely water-repellent STORMLOCK HYPROOF MINIRIP as the shell fabric, this jacket is made for challenging expeditions.

SUPERSONIC XT JACKET MEN For high-octane activity and sunny days: the medium warmth soft shell hooded jacket is totally windproof due to its STORMLOCK SOFTSHELL SMOOTHLIGHT shell fabric and comes with a medium insulation fleece reverse side.

Perfect for an active sunny winter’s day.

ROCK'N ICE MEN A trekking jacket for every kind of weather! Its 5-in-1 function makes it ideal for a wide range of temperatures and types of trips. The TEXAPORE O2 shell jacket guarantees superb breathability and total weather protection.

MOUNTAIN LAKE WOMEN The lightest 3-in-1 trekking jacket by Jack Wolfskin for women! Tailored from lightweight yet robust TEXAPORE TASLITE, its high breathability is increased by venting zips.

SANCTUARY III RT A stormproof lightweight: the outer fabric weighs only 57 g per m2 and a metre of tent pole about the same – that adds up to a total weight of just 3750 g! The

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Details of our trip

Jotunheimen National Park The “Home of the Giants” lies in south Norway at the highest altitude of all the national parks in the country. It contains not only the two highest peaks in Northern Europe (Galdøpping 2469 m and Glittertind 2452 m), but also most of Norway’s ‘2000 m’ peaks. The landscape is high Alpine with craggy peaks and many glaciers. It is easy to combine different routes because of the well-developed network of paths and many huts. The area around Olavsbu is one of the most beautiful yet loneliest places – we camped not far from there.

http://www.visitjotunheimen.com/de/

Accommodation Lom The gateway to Jotunheimen: the typical mountain village with 700 inhabitants is the ideal starting point for exploring the Jotunheimen region. From here you have many trip options and many can be accessed using the bus network.

Our great accommodation for the night including delicious food: Hotel Andvord Gard AS http://www.andvordgard.no/

Hut accommodation The DNT (the Norwegian Tourist Association) is the Norwegian trekking association and operates many huts offering board in Jotunheimen, for example Gjendesheim, Gjendebu, Glitterheim, Fondsbu, Skogadalsbøen and Fannaråkhytta. In addition, there are several self-catering huts such as in Olavsbu, Yksendalsbu and Tomashelleren.

http://www.turistforeningen.no/

Trips The well-developed network of huts allows many variations of multi-day trips of various lengths. We started in Leiredalen and followed the Leirvassbu – Gjenddebu (24 km) – Olavsbu (15 km) – Leirvassbu (15 km) route, making various detours to peaks and glaciers in the region. http://www.scandinavianmountains.com/ http://www.brefjell.no/

Maps Statens Kartverk, 1:50 000 Jotunheimen East and West Individual 1:25 000 Explorer maps can be purchased at the DNT.

photos: Gaudenz Danuser