Besseggen
Encyclopedia
Besseggen, or Besseggi, is a mountain ridge in Vågå
kommune in Oppland
county. Besseggen lies east in Jotunheimen
, between the lakes Gjende
and Bessvatnet
.
The walk over Besseggen is one of the most popular mountain hikes in Norway
. About 30,000 people walk this trip each year. The route over Besseggen starts at Gjendesheim
, up to the trails highest point, Veslfjellet
(1,743 m), down Besseggen, further over the relatively flat area Bandet (at the foot of Besshø
), and ends at Memurubu
, where one may take the regularly scheduled ferry route back to Gjendesheim. Many choose to do the hike in the other direction by starting at Memurubu after first taking the ferry there from Gjendesheim. The trip is estimated to take about 5-7 hours to walk without rest stops.
From Besseggen there is a great view over Gjende
and Bessvatnet
. One of the unique aspects of the view is that Gjende lies almost 400 m lower than Bessvatnet, and while Bessvatnet has a blue color typical of other lakes, Gjende has a distinct green color. The green color is the result from glacier runoff containing clay (rock flour
). Looking down towards Memurubu one can see the nearby river Muru
coloring the water with a light colored runoff.
r towards the restoration of the trails. The project involves placing stone plates on the trail to limit additional damage and prevent further erosion. The stone plates were flown in by helicopter
from Vågå since mass harvesting of stone from Jotunheimen is illegal. The technique used to pave the trail is modeled on the methods developed for the Snowdonia National Park in Wales
.
with a time of 1 hour 39 minutes and 47 seconds. «32 year old housewife with (and mother of) two kids ran like a goat over Besseggen» the newspaper Dagbladet
reported.
s play Peer Gynt
. Peer tries to convince his mother, Åse, that he has ridden over Gjendineggen, now known as Besseggen, on a reindeer
bull. From Act 1, Scene 1
Besseggen is also described in the poem «Besseggen» by Ragnvald Skrede
.
, the last element is the finite form off egg 'edge'. In the dialect of the area the form is Besseggje - Besseggen is the form in Bokmål
, and Besseggi is the form in Nynorsk
.
Vågå
Vågå is a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. It is part of the traditional region of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Vågåmo....
kommune in Oppland
Oppland
is a county in Norway, bordering Sør-Trøndelag, Møre og Romsdal, Sogn og Fjordane, Buskerud, Akershus, Oslo and Hedmark. The county administration is in Lillehammer. Oppland is, together with Hedmark, one of the only two landlocked counties of Norway....
county. Besseggen lies east in Jotunheimen
Jotunheimen
Jotunheimen is a mountainous area of roughly 3,500 km² in Southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all in Jotunheimen, including the very highest - Galdhøpiggen...
, between the lakes Gjende
Gjende
Gjende is a lake in the Jotunheimen mountains in Norway's Jotunheimen National Park. The proglacial lake shows typical characteristics of glacial formation, being long and narrow—in length 18 km and in breadth 1.5 km at the broadest point with steep walls...
and Bessvatnet
Bessvatnet
Bessvatnet is a lake in Vågå, Oppland, Norway. Bessvatnet is known to everyone that has hiked Besseggen, as one passes its southern end, while looking down on the green lake Gjende.-The name:...
.
The walk over Besseggen is one of the most popular mountain hikes in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
. About 30,000 people walk this trip each year. The route over Besseggen starts at Gjendesheim
Gjendesheim
Gjendesheim Turisthytte has been a staffed lodge with Norwegian Mountain Touring Association Oslo og Omegn as proprietor since 1878, and is located in the heart of the Norwegian mountains. The lodge can accommodate 170 guests in bedrooms with 1, 2 and 4 beds and four dormitories...
, up to the trails highest point, Veslfjellet
Veslfjellet
Veslfjellet is a mountain of Oppland, in southern Norway....
(1,743 m), down Besseggen, further over the relatively flat area Bandet (at the foot of Besshø
Besshø
Besshø , is a mountain in Vågå, Oppland, Norway, and is part of the Jotunheimen mountain range. It lies right above Bessvatnet, along the Besseggen hiking trail...
), and ends at Memurubu
Memurubu
Memurubu is a tourist hut in Norway, at the end or start of the famous Besseggen hiking trail. Memurubu is originally an old mountain pasture dating back to 1872, but has had tourists just as long. Cows are still grazing around the tourist hut, which lies at the mouth of the river Muru in the...
, where one may take the regularly scheduled ferry route back to Gjendesheim. Many choose to do the hike in the other direction by starting at Memurubu after first taking the ferry there from Gjendesheim. The trip is estimated to take about 5-7 hours to walk without rest stops.
From Besseggen there is a great view over Gjende
Gjende
Gjende is a lake in the Jotunheimen mountains in Norway's Jotunheimen National Park. The proglacial lake shows typical characteristics of glacial formation, being long and narrow—in length 18 km and in breadth 1.5 km at the broadest point with steep walls...
and Bessvatnet
Bessvatnet
Bessvatnet is a lake in Vågå, Oppland, Norway. Bessvatnet is known to everyone that has hiked Besseggen, as one passes its southern end, while looking down on the green lake Gjende.-The name:...
. One of the unique aspects of the view is that Gjende lies almost 400 m lower than Bessvatnet, and while Bessvatnet has a blue color typical of other lakes, Gjende has a distinct green color. The green color is the result from glacier runoff containing clay (rock flour
Rock flour
Rock flour, or glacial flour, consists of fine-grained, silt-sized particles of rock, generated by mechanical grinding of bedrock by glacial erosion or by artificial grinding to a similar size...
). Looking down towards Memurubu one can see the nearby river Muru
Muru
Muru is a river in Jotunheimen in southern Norway. It originates at the glacier Austre Memurubrean and runs through Memurudalen then finally empties into the lake Gjende right next to Memurubu. The river is approximately 10 km long and is the primary source for the lake Gjende.One of the...
coloring the water with a light colored runoff.
Impact of tourism
The large number of hikers has led to serious erosion on the trails leading to Besseggen, both from Gjendesheim and Memurubu. In 2005 the Norwegian government authorized spending of 1.2 million Norwegian kroneNorwegian krone
The krone is the currency of Norway and its dependent territories. The plural form is kroner . It is subdivided into 100 øre. The ISO 4217 code is NOK, although the common local abbreviation is kr. The name translates into English as "crown"...
r towards the restoration of the trails. The project involves placing stone plates on the trail to limit additional damage and prevent further erosion. The stone plates were flown in by helicopter
Helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by one or more engine-driven rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forwards, backwards, and laterally...
from Vågå since mass harvesting of stone from Jotunheimen is illegal. The technique used to pave the trail is modeled on the methods developed for the Snowdonia National Park in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
.
Competitions
In 1961, 1962 and 1963 a race across Besseggen called «Besseggløpet» was held during the summer. The race was organized by Norges Orienteringsforbund in cooperation with Den Norske Turistforening. The record time from 1963 is held by Reidar Andreassen who was almost four and a half minutes ahead of the next finisher. The record time of 1 hour 16 minutes and 48 seconds still holds today. The women's record, set in 1963, is held by Valborg Østberg from GjøvikGjøvik
is a town and a municipality in Oppland county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Gjøvik.In 1861, the village of Gjøvik in the municipality of Vardal was granted town status and was separated from Vardal to form a separate municipality...
with a time of 1 hour 39 minutes and 47 seconds. «32 year old housewife with (and mother of) two kids ran like a goat over Besseggen» the newspaper Dagbladet
Dagbladet
Dagbladet is Norway's second largest tabloid newspaper, and the third largest newspaper overall with a circulation of 105,255 copies in 2009, 18,128 papers less than in 2008. The editor in chief is Lars Helle....
reported.
Besseggen in the literature
Besseggen is known from Henrik IbsenHenrik Ibsen
Henrik Ibsen was a major 19th-century Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet. He is often referred to as "the father of prose drama" and is one of the founders of Modernism in the theatre...
s play Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt
Peer Gynt is a five-act play in verse by the Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen, loosely based on the fairy tale Per Gynt. It is the most widely performed Norwegian play. According to Klaus Van Den Berg, the "cinematic script blends poetry with social satire and realistic scenes with surreal ones"...
. Peer tries to convince his mother, Åse, that he has ridden over Gjendineggen, now known as Besseggen, on a reindeer
Reindeer
The reindeer , also known as the caribou in North America, is a deer from the Arctic and Subarctic, including both resident and migratory populations. While overall widespread and numerous, some of its subspecies are rare and one has already gone extinct.Reindeer vary considerably in color and size...
bull. From Act 1, Scene 1
Have you ever
chanced to see the Gendin-Edge?
Nigh on four miles long it stretches
sharp before you like a scythe.
Down o'er glaciers, landslips, scaurs,
down the toppling grey moraines,
you can see, both right and left,
straight into the tarns that slumber,
black and sluggish, more than seven
hundred fathoms deep below you.
Right along the Edge we two
clove our passage through the air.
Never rode I such a colt!
Straight before us as we rushed
'twas as though there glittered suns.
Brown-backed eagles that were sailing
in the wide and dizzy void
half-way 'twixt us and the tarns,
dropped behind, like motes in air.
Ice-floes on the shores broke crashing,
but no murmur reached my ears.
Only sprites of dizziness sprang,
dancing, round;-they sang, they swung,
circle-wise, past sight and hearing!
Besseggen is also described in the poem «Besseggen» by Ragnvald Skrede
Ragnvald Skrede
Ragnvald Skrede was a Norwegian author, journalist, literature critic and translator.-Biography:Ragnvald Skrede was born in Vågå in Oppland county, Norway. Skrede was the youngest seven children. He was a student at Elverum teacher school . In 1928, he was hired as a teacher and sexton in...
.
The name
The mountain ridge is named after BessvatnetBessvatnet
Bessvatnet is a lake in Vågå, Oppland, Norway. Bessvatnet is known to everyone that has hiked Besseggen, as one passes its southern end, while looking down on the green lake Gjende.-The name:...
, the last element is the finite form off egg 'edge'. In the dialect of the area the form is Besseggje - Besseggen is the form in Bokmål
Bokmål
Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....
, and Besseggi is the form in Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
.
External links
- Gjendesheim cabin
- Memurubu's page on Besseggen
- Infopage Besseggen
- Ferry on Gjende (Gjendebåtene)
- Article on Besseggløpet (in Norwegian)
- UT.no about hiking on Besseggen (in Norwegian)
Further reading
- Bernhard Pollmann "Norway South", ISBN 3-7633-4807-7.
- A. Dyer et al. "Walks and Scrambles in Norway", ISBN 1-904466-25-7.
- W.C. Slingsby "Norway: the Northern Playground", ISBN 1-904466-07-9.