Jotunheimen area
Informations about the highest mountains of Norway and surrounding area.
ABOUT THE JOTUNHEIMEN AREA
Jotunheimen (The home of the Giants) is a mountainous area of roughly 3,500 square kilometres in the heart of southern Norway and is part of the long mountain range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all located in the Jotunheimen mountains, including the 2,469-metre hight mountain Galdhøpiggen (the highest point in Norway and Northern Europe). Therefore some people call Jotunheimen "The Roof of Northern Europe". The Jotunheimen mountains create the border between Innlandet and Vestland counties of Norway.
Gallery
HOW TO GET TO JOTUNHEIMEN
Jotunheimen is located in central southern Norway between the cities Oslo, Bergen and Trondhein. The Jotunheimen mountains straddle the border between Innlandet and Vestland counties.
All details about traveling to Jotunheimen - HERE
INSPIRATION
Jotunheimen offers nature at its peak. Hike, bike, climb or ski. Flow with rivers and listen to waterfalls. Camp wild and free, spend the night sleeping inside the park’s wooden huts, cabins and lodges or built a fire in a suite of a boutique hotel called Herangtunet or stay nearby the Besseggen at Gjendesheim.
In the Home of the Giants you touch the sky walking over the famous Besseggen ridge with outdoor-activity-center Beitostølen nearby. Fly with eagles standing on top of the mighty Galdhøpiggen or just lie on your back in the lush meadows of this natural beauty embraced by picturesque Lom, the green slopes of Gudbrandsdalen, traditional Valdres, the waters of the Sognefjord and the eternal ice of the Jotunheimen glaciers.
Watch and be watched by the abundant wildlife. Experience the freedom, beauty, Zen and mystique of Europe’s wildest nature. Come, meet the seasons and listen to the heart of Norway, beating in Jotunheimen. Jotunheimen National Park, the heart of Norway beats between Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim.
HISTORY AND TOURISM
Jotunheimen has been the site of hunting since before recorded time. Remains of Stone Age hunting camps have been found near the lakes Gjende and Russvatnet. These remains extend through the bronze and Iron Age, up to recorded times. The high pastures have been used as seters for at least 1000 years.
A "Royal Road" decree from the 15th century required that the residents of Lom must keep the mountain crossing passable to the middle of the Sognefjell, allowing folk from the north Gudbrandsdal access to their trading town of the period, Bergen. Caravans carried farm products down the mountains and returned with salt, iron, cloth and lutefisk.
The name Jotunheimen, or "Home of the Giants" is a relatively recent usage. Aasmund Olavsson Vinje (1818–1879), a famous Norwegian poet and journalist who is remembered for his pioneering use of nynorsk, as well as being an exponent of Norwegian romantic nationalism, coined the term in 1862, adopting it from Keilhau's "Jotunfjellene" or the mountains of the giants. A memorial was raised in 1909 to Aa. O. Vinje at the western end of Lake Bygdin at his dear Eidsbugarden at today's outskirts of the national park where he had a private hut. Old friends and followers wanted to commemorate his contribution to appreciation of Norwegian nature and strengthening of the Norwegian national identity. Today Eidsbugarden appears as a rather large mountain tourist centre, with a newly restored hotel from 1909 that reopened in the summer of 2007, a Norwegian Mountain Touring Association (DNT) cabin Fondsbu and approximately 160 private huts. It can be reached by car or boat in summer and by snowmobile in winter.
DNT HUTS
The Norwegian Trekking Association (Norwegian: Den norske turistforening, DNT) is a Norwegian association which maintains mountain trails and cabins in Norway. The association was founded on 21 January 1868 with the scope "to help and develop tourism in this country".
In 1869 the DNT built its first hut on the shores of Lake Tyin. Today the DNT's tourist huts make Jotunheimen area one of the best developed touring areas in Europe.
There are a number of serviced and unserviced tourist cabins both on the outskirts and inside the national park. Even though there can be many visitors at certain times of the year, you can still experience the freedom, the mystery, and solitude.
JOTUNHEIMEN NATIONAL PARK
By Royal Decree in December 1980, a 1,145-square-kilometre national park was initially established in the heart of Jotunheimen. It includes much of the best of the region, including the Galdhø plateau, the Glittertind massif, Hurrungane, and the Gjende area. The park is connected to the Utladalen Nature Reserve, an area of 300 square kilometres.
The national park covers most of the mountainous region of Jotunheimen, including Hurrungane massif and Utladalen area and its surroundings are within Utladalen Landscape Protection Area. Geographically, it lies in both Innlandet and Vestland counties. Geologically the Jotunheimen is a Precambrian province. Glaciers have carved the hard gabbro rock massifs of the Jotunheimen, leaving numerous valleys and the many peaks.
