Daniel on The Road: 48 Hours Jotunheimen - Valley Low

I wanted to cross the Jotunheimen National Park from Oevre Ardal to Lom, but I did not really pay attention to the fact that the whole area is still full of snow. The whole area? No. there is a valley, the valley where the Vettisfossen Waterfall is located and there, inside of the valley, there is no snow. And there is no way. And do not ask me why - I decided to continue my way into that snowfree valley, cause I thought there would be a way, or that I could join the regular path some 8 to 10 kilometers further down (or better up).

the seemingly easy way (to the waterfall), which should lead me up the river-valley, but I was wrong

the "harder" way, which would have been covered with snow after 1 hour and I would have returned to safe grounds early

That was a wrong assumption. So at Avdalen gard, Øvre Årdal I decided to not take the steep path to the right but to follow the one straight ahead down into the valley, which was the way to Vettisfossen waterfall, which I mistook for a route along the river up to a meeting point with another path, but it ends at the waterfall.

fucked up summer-only-bridge

narrow road

Vettisfossen Waterfall

At the waterfall I thought that the way would continue at the other side of the creek coming from that waterfall and I could "see" the way so I fearlessly crossed that quick flowing, wild, wild creek.


in the upper part of the picture you can "see" the "way"

So after not falling into the icecold and fast water, I fought my way up the valley alongside the river and it did not come to my mind, that I would never reach the route along the river 8 to 10 kilometers further up. I found an old hut with firewood after an hour, so I made myself a coffee and continued on more and more harder terrain. The whole story happened on an area of only about 4 square kilometers.
After persistently climbing over rocks and small trees, roots and steep parts along the river, I decided to better go ahead than to return to Vettisfossen, cause I did not want to walk trough the cold creek again, which gave me wet feet and water-soaked boots. So I climbed on an difficult terrain, again fearless.

this rock is big like a van

the valley - no path, just rocks and moss

Sometimes I walked in the river, cause it was easier than to climb along the banks like a goat. Here - after 2 kilometres and 4 hours later I fully understood the right way would be 470 metres away, on the other side of the mountain range on the left side on the picture but some hundred meters higher! I decided to climb over this mountain range and meet the right route on the other side. After 3 kilometres I build my camp on a little plateau some meters above the river, managed to get a fire going all night ( birchtree, firetree - even in wet conditions as I had this evening), where I dried my cloth and shoes, cooked rice and tea and read a little on my tablet-pc.
I spare you the survival, fear-of-death, how-dangerous-it-was, how-heavy-my-backpack-was part - IT WAS FUCKING DEADLY-DANGEROUS - and just share some of the views. You will see that nameless waterfall quite often, cause I did not make more then 1 to 2 kilometres (with sideways, Baby-with sideways, cause there is no path up there) that next day, when I climbed the mountain to come to the other side. In fact at that point the navigationsystem showed me the right path on the plateau would be about 750 meters away! Took me about 11 hours to get there.

higher

and higher

even more higher

very high

snow-high

Here you see - snow! I finally understood that the way to Lom was blocked by snow, so I decided to go back to Ardal, but first I had to finish to cross that mountain.
I said that there was no way but that is not true. Some heavy deer had also chosen to leave the valley on the route I chose and I could see its imprints on the ground and its shit, so I had a route to to follow. Higher up I followed a goats path, narrow, narrow, but I did it. Later, on the plateau and before on the top of the mountain range, the imprints of the moose who nicely compressed the snow for me, so I could walk without sinking in - guided me. On the top of the mountain it took me hours to fight my way to the bridge over another river, 500 meters took me some hours - climbing up, climbing down, resting, climbing. and then finally I met the right way and THE BRIDGE, haha.

Then It was only about one kilometer to a field of cabins near a lake. I saw them from the top of the mountain. So I used my navigation app on the tablet - checking every 10, to 20 meters - to go to the cabins, walking on deep snow inside the imprints of a heavy moose, so i did not sink in so often.

My plan was to sleep in a camp near a cabin, and get some firewood there, cause I thought that nobody would be up there, cause I saw no traces of human activity. But as I reached the cabin area, I saw a man waving a hundred metres away. I went there and it was a nice norwegian looking like Robert Redford and he told me that there was an unlocked emergency-cabin with beds and stove I could use or stay in a nearby DNT-Cabin where he saw some skies in front of the door and sleep there. He wished me a good night and recovery after he had heard my story. I went to see the DNT-cabin to talk to the people there, whom the skies belonged. They invited me in, showed me how to register and explained the payment-system of DNT-selfservice-cabins. So finally I flipped from survival into a classy comfortzone, already heated, with beds and a place to dry my shoes and cloth in the 16-person DNT-Cabin Ingjerdbu.

Ingjerdbu

Oh - it has been a wonderful, amazing evening with that young norwegian couple which stayed there for skiing. They had a key for the cabin (as DNT-members they picked it up in the DNT-Shop) and showed me how things work in the cabin. The man could speak a little german, and both tried to use some german words with me or kept speaking english even in private conversations, so I would not feel excluded! We talked about Berlin, Norway, the Autobahn, the West-Norwegian Mountains, Saxonians, North-East and North-West-Germans, the Linienstrasse in Berlin/Mitte and the joys of biking in Berlin! They expressed their pride to be of service to someone from Germany visiting the mountains here.(!) How awesome! Good vibrations!

In the morning I met the nice Norwegian Robert Redford lookalike again and his friend and they again listened to my story, the friend expressed his gratitude that I did not die in the valley " ...and they would have found just your skeleton, one day - since there is no mobile network connection...off the path in Jotunheimen can be deadly" and so on! Yes, I got it!
He checked my route on the tablet and explained the way back to Ardal to me and gave me the order to follow tha tracks of thier skies they left when they came up the other day "...and for Gods sake do not descend unless you find the path I explained to you! If you do not believe you will find the way ... better stay here up on the cabin-field! (...and descend with them some days later)".
So I followed their skitracks, found the steep rout down to the valley and arrived safely at Avdalen gard at noon.