Svelgabreen, Jun 6th

This last hike in Norway was a bit of gamble for a couple of reasons. It was way out there in a very remote location I was not even sure I would be able to get to and there was not a lot of information about the hike it either. Still, there was the promise of being up close and personal with the glacier which is always attractive so off I went. The drive there was long and tedious at first as I got off the main road and started driving on a winding road deep into the mountains. At first it was hard to make sense of where I was going but then I got to some spectacular lakes with the most amazing colors. I made several stops on the way, so it took a bit longer than expected to get to the trailhead.

Along the way I started realizing (and would corroborate later) that the lakes were man-made. It so happens that his area is peppered with dams and small electric generation stations tucked in the mountains. There are power lines everywhere and the roads were built to give access to all these plants. In fact, the trailhead is right before the road ends at the gate of the last power plant.

The hike started with a steep incline that was half covered in snow. Right there I knew there was a chance I would not get too far. It was probably to early in the season for this hike. What I could see as a trail was muddy and slippery and then there were sections I couldn’t see. It was hard to follow the track, but the views were making up for that. Looking back, I had little ponds and light blue lakes showing a very low water level.

Once I left behind the views of the lake and creek I hiked up on I got to a view of Mosevatnet, another glacier melt lake. I walked around in the area for a bit until I found a good angle to look deep into the other end where the glacier comes all the way down into the water. From pictures I’ve seen of this hike, I thought that’s were I was going but that was not the case. In hindsight I guess I could’ve just gone off trail to that area. It might have been a better destination for the day.

Around that spot, I found the trail junction separating the upper and lower trails. Both trails join further down but the reason is just to avoid what can be a difficult crossing in the spring. I took the lower route (the more difficult) on the way in and soon I found the area that could be more difficult. As I was coming down from a hill, the trail was taking me to a small dam with a railing as part of the trail. Further down a sign for rafters indicated a big jump ahead as I believe their route takes them over another small dam. That second crossing, since it’s also used by rafters, has no handrails so if there’s water running it could be tricky to pass. Lucky for me and with the lakes being so low, the top of the dam was dry and very easy to pass.

From there I started traversing snow fields as I made my way along an arm of Midbotvatnet, a much larger lake. This lake, in contrast to the ones I had left behind, was grey green and not very pretty. It looked more like a gigantic mud pit. I was also hiking under power lines, so it was not the experience I was hoping for, yet I continued with the hopes of getting to the glacier.

Then I got to the stopping point. I could see a path going over a snow field and another snowfield further ahead that didn’t look very promising. The snow was soft, and it was easy to break thru and going over a rock field covered in soft snow is never fun. I explored around for an alternate path but by then the hike wasn’t doing it for me, so I took a short break and started heading back.

On the way I took the high route which didn’t prove to be more interesting until it got me to the view point where I took a couple more shoots and then headed back to the car.
You can see the rest of the pictures here