Jotunheimen is a mountain area in central southern Norway between
Ottadalen in the north, Gudbrandsdalen in the east, Valdres in the
south and Sogn in the west. The area has an area of around 3500
square kilometers.
Here are the highest mountains in Northern
Europe, Galdhøpiggen (2,469 m) and Glittertinden (2,457 m). The
eighteen other highest peaks on mainland Norway are also located in
this landscape, with Vestre Tverråtind at 2,309 m as the "lowest".
This is followed by Snøhetta (Dovre massif, 2,286 m) and Beerenberg
(Jan Mayen, 2,277 m).
Jotunheimen National Park was
established in December 1980 with 1151 square kilometers of
protected area.
Jotunheimen is a popular hiking area, and has
a well-developed cabin network and many marked trails. The most
popular route in Jotunheimen is the trip over Besseggen, which runs
between Gjende and Bessvatnet. It is possible to walk all the way
from Oslo city center to Gjende in Jotunheimen along Jotunheimstien,
a hiking trail that the Norwegian Tourist Association opened in
2006.
Geography, geology, landscape
Jotunheimen is bounded by
Valdresflya and Sjoa in the east, Bygdin, Tyin in the south,
Sognefjellet and Bøverdalen in the west and Kvittingskjølen in the
north.
Jotunheimen consists of several mountain areas
separated by glacial U-valleys, several of them with lakes. The
mountain areas are located at an altitude of 1800–2400 meters, while
most of the valleys are above the forest boundary at an altitude of
1000–1400 meters above sea level.
The most important mountain
areas are the Galdhøpigg massif (also called Ymisfjell) and
Smørstabbtindan in the west and Hurrungane in the southwest, the
peaks between Gjende and Bygdin, also called Gjendealpene, in the
south, the Memurutind massif in the east and the Glittertind massif
in the north. In addition to these areas, there are more
free-standing mountains, especially in the center and south of
Jotunheimen.
The mountain areas differ mainly from east to
west in that the peaks in the west are sharper and more corroded by
glaciers, than those in the east. Hurrungane in the southwest has
many of the sharpest peaks in Norway.
The largest and most
special valley in Jotunheimen is Utladalen, where the river Utla has
created a gorge deep in from Årdal in the south with a number of
hanging valleys on both sides. Other larger valleys in Jotunheimen
are Leirdalen, Visdalen, Veodalen and Gjende with Memurudalen.
The rocks in Jotunheimen were mainly formed in the periods
Silurian and Devonian for approx. 400 million years ago, as part of
the Caledonian mountain range. These rocks, which belong to the
Jotun deck, were pushed over the bedrock, which is only found in
patches and along the edge of the mountain range.
The
dominant rock in Jotunheimen is gabbro.
The landscape forms
are formed by glacier erosion during and after the last ice age with
developing valleys, ravines and moraines.
Flora and fauna
The richest plant mountains are located in the northern and eastern
parts of Jotunheimen, where the bedrock is loose, calcareous slate
and limestone. Also in areas with gabbro there is a rich plant life.
The plant ice oil has been found at an altitude of 2370 meters
on Galdhøpiggen, which is a height record in Norway for plants.
History
Traces of humans can be found from 2000 BC. by the
lakes Tesse, Tyin and Vinstre.
Blasting pits for iron
extraction from 400 AD. has been found in Visdalen, by Sjodalsvann,
Tesse and Randsverk.
The name Jotunheimen was first used by
Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, who visited the area a lot in the 1860s. It
was scientists (like Keilhau), artists like Flintoe and Carpelan,
students, and wealthy Englishmen and Norwegians who throughout the
20th century made Jotunheimen known for something more than just
being a big white and unknown spot on the map. Carpelan's watercolor
View from Murklopphøgda on Filefjell to the north is probably the
first artistic depiction of Hurrungene and Jotunheimen. The road
between Christiania and Bergen went over Murklopphøgda (opened in
1793) and gave a view of these "Kjempefjellene" which until then
were unknown to the townspeople. Later, both Carpelan and Flintoe
made drawings or paintings based on Keilhaus's sketches from around
1820.
Before this, the area was known as the Jotun Mountains,
a name given to the area in 1820 by the pioneers Christian Peder
Bianco Boeck and Baltazar Mathias Keilhau after the pattern of the
Karkonosze-Krkonoše (German: Riesengebirge) ("giant mountains")
between Silesia and Bohemia. These people made the trips to unknown
peaks, valleys and peaks - something that the villagers at that time
did not find much meaning in.
The name Jotunheimen comes from
Norse mythology, where Jotun means giant, which therefore means
Giants' Home. The area is marketed, together with adjacent national
park areas, as the National Park Kingdom.
The villagers
From ancient times, the mountains in Jotunheimen have been used by
the villagers for grazing and grazing for livestock, for hunting,
trapping and fishing. The mountain was also used as a traffic route
between the east and west. It was often easier for people to travel
on foot or on horseback along the mountains - than to hook their way
through the valleys. Traces of the ancestors' use of the mountain
are found in the form of hunting and fishing arches built in stone,
paths that follow the old roads, and m.a. which remains after coal
and tar burning.