We visited the Svartisen Glacier mid July, 2002 while working our way north to get to the Nord Cap. Literally Svartisen is “Black Ice”. The glacier covers roughly 370 square kilometers and is Norway’s second largest glacier. It is divided by the Vesterday Valley with the highest section at arond 1500 meters.  Below right is a picture of the portion of the glacier we visited, with our path marked by the red line. Adjacent to the glacer is Svartisvatnet - a beautiful ice green glacial lake. To get to the glacier you have to take a shuttle boat across the fjord. The boats run every 45 minutes from the highway which is just north of Holand. From the boat dock you then have a 3 kilometer walk to the visitors center. We opted to take a glacier walk that took about 5 hours. The company that offers the walks will also provide the necessary equipment - boots, socks, ice axe, cramp-ons and gloves.

Our guide was Anette Myrvang who provided the necessary instruction in the use of the cramp-ons and ice axe. We had a very enjoyable day on the ice and recommend that anyone who gets to this part of Norway take the time to go on the walk. See the www.svartisen.no web site for more information.

Above left are Jim and Annette getting ready for the climb. We had to first hike around the lake, then scramble across and up a rocky portion of the mountain to get to our starting point. Part of the preparation was tying us all together with a long rope - that way, if anyone fell, the others would be able to stop them from sliding all the way down the glacier, hopefully. We each wore a halter-type harness to which the rope was connected. It was something like being part of a mule-train, but the added security was essential to our well-being.

We climbed up and across from the right side to the left where we peered into the the deep blue hole pictured above right. The formations formed by the wind and melting ice are quite fantastic. You can see the horizontal layers of ice - the lighter, whitish layers the were formed during the winter where lots of air gets trapped into the ice. The darker blue, thinner layers are the summer layers where the snow has melted and refrozen, making it very dense and hard.

Above left is a picture of us on the glacier, with the lake, fjord and mountains in the background. You can see it was a gorgeous day, with plenty of blue sky and fluffy white clouds. Of course, when we had left the hotel in the morning, it was all overcast and drizzling, so we were quite happy with the way the day turned out! We were actually very happy it wasn’t clearer, because it can get very hot up there in full sun. As it was, it was warm although a constant wind whips down the face of the glacier.

Although we soon got used to walking on these spikey things, it was actually quite tiring. When going up the glacier, it is like hiking up a steep mountain. And when it gets really steep, you must side-step up or face downhill and climb up backwards. Then there is the going down which burns the thighs and wrecks havoc with our not-so-young knees. Above right is a shot of the view over the craggy portion of the glacier. It was absolutely magnificent from up there and many times it was difficult to ignore the view so you could pay attention to where you were walking.

Above left are Verna and Anette, our trusted guide for the day. Annette and 5 other people own the company that provides the guided walks and is on the glacier every day during the summer. She was quite knowledgeable about the glacier and we felt quite safe up there with her. In the winter she goes to university, studying medicine. Her challenge now is to design a career melding medicine with her passion for outdoor activites such as this.

Our day was long and varied, exhausting, exhilerating and absolutely fantastic. A definite highlight to our visit to Norway.

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