Olden

Briksdal's glacier arm, the ridge above the Loen Skylift, and Skåla — sea level to 1,843 m.

Olden sits at the end of a short arm of the Nordfjord with Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier on mainland Europe, filling the plateau behind it. Ice is the whole subject here: it carved the two long lakes that run inland from the village, it is still visible at the end of one of them, and it is what makes the mountains rise so abruptly from the water that a walk from the shore can gain 1,800 metres without ever traversing. The range of what is possible in a day is wider than anywhere else in the catalogue — two hours on a gravel track, or the longest continuous ascent in Norway.

Going ashore

Nothing here is walkable from the pier, and that is the first thing this guide says rather than the last. Briksdal is 24 kilometres up one valley and the Loen Skylift about 15 the other way, and both need paid transport. The Briksdal shuttle leaves from the car park behind the tender pier whenever a ship is in, sold return and card only, and runs to fill rather than to a timetable — the first goes about twenty minutes after the first tender lands. The Loen Shuttle, which used to link the two, is not running in the summer of 2026 — the Skylift says so on its own page — so Loen means a taxi or a ship's excursion, and the guide plans that route on the assumption you are paying for a car.

The hikes

1. 01

   Briksdal, the glacier track

   6 km · 4 hours · 200 m up

   Shuttle 24 km up the valley, then a gravel track past a waterfall to the glacier lake and back. Easy, busy, the one everyone comes for. Any call under six hours.

2. 02

   Hoven, the ridge above the Skylift

   5 km · 5 hours · 150 m up

   Taxi 15 km to Loen, the cable car to 1 011 m, then a marked ridge path to Skredfjellet and back. The best view per step here, at a price. Not in wind — the lift stops.

3. 03

   Lodalen, the lake of the two disasters

   7 km · 5 hours · 120 m up

   Taxi 22 km to the head of Lovatnet, then a lakeshore walk between the farms the rockfall waves of 1905 and 1936 took. Quiet, flat, the most affecting walk here. For second visits and shut-lift days.

4. 04

   Skåla, from the sea to the tower

   16 km · 10 hours · 1806 m up

   The longest continuous ascent in Norway: 1 843 m from fjord to summit tower in a day. Eight hours of walking. Only for an eleven-hour call and people who have done 1 800 m before — read page 15 first.

What's inside

Look inside

Pages 1–6 are in the free sample. 32 pages in the full guide.

What the guide covers

• Briksdalsbreen
• Kleivafossen
• Briksdalsbrevatnet
• Jostedalsbreen
• Loen Skylift
• Hoven
• Skredfjellet
• Lovatnet
• Ramnefjellet
• Nesdal
• Bødal
• Skåla
• Skålatårnet
• Oldevatnet

4 routes · 34 km · 32 pages

When to go

The Briksdal track is open whenever ships call, May to September, though the melt can close the upper part for a day in late May; the troll cars finish in September, and from October the shuttle, the troll cars and the Fjellstove all close. The Skylift's summer fares run 1 May to 11 October and it operates all year, but the ridge to Skredfjellet holds snow into July and ices from September and is not a winter walk. Skåla's upper half is snowbound outside roughly late June to September. Meltwater is loudest and the falls fullest in June; by late August the glacier is greyer and the crowds thinner, which is a fair trade.