Vestland, Norway
Winter crossing of the Jotunheimen mountains
Self-sufficient and independently on tour through Scandinavia’s highest mountain range.
Winter was already drawing to a close in Germany when we set off on an extremely ambitious trip: an extended version of the classic HAUTE ROUTE JOTUNHEIMEN in winter – the “King’s Traverse” of Scandinavia’s highest mountain range. The Jotunheimen mountains are also known as the “Home of the Giants”: this 3,500-square-kilometer mountain range, with its rugged peaks, glaciers and U-shaped trough valleys, bears the distinct marks of the Ice Age. At the end of March, icy Arctic conditions still prevail here, particularly on the more than 250 storm-battered mountain peaks.
Following our two previous winter traverses of Hardangervidda and Sarek, the Jotunheimen mountains are set to become our most challenging winter crossing of a Scandinavian national park. We have an ambitious plan: to complete the Haute Route Jotunheimen in two weeks – entirely self-sufficiently, without the use of any support such as huts, food caches, or snowmobiles. In addition, we aim to climb some of the most spectacular peaks in the western part of the range.
We set out in challenging weather conditions at the northern end of the national park, at the entrance to Dumdalen, a rugged valley that leads to the vast plateau of Storevatnet. We were carrying over 80 kg of equipment, including food and gas for two weeks, a winter tent, and a full set of glacier and mountaineering gear, packed across two pulks.
On the evening of the second long day – which had been extremely exhausting due to limited visibility of just a few meters – we had just crossed a frozen lake. We were less than 20 meters away from the spot where we planned to pitch our tent, when the nightmare struck that was never supposed to happen: Without warning, I broke through half a meter of fresh snow and found myself chest-deep in a river. Luckily, I was able to quickly pull myself out of the cold water. We than hurried setting up our tent so I could get out of the wind with my wet clothes.
As it turned out later on, our planning schedule for the entire route was quite optimistic. Instead of the planned one and a half days, it took us a full four days to complete the first section. The weather, the terrain, and the heavy load we had to carry day after day through the magnificent landscape took their toll right from the start. Although our planned route mainly follows valleys, we have to tackle numerous slopes up and down – every day. Many of the slopes are so steep that we have to drag each pulk up the hill in pairs, which triples our walking distance. And on a steep slope uphill, there was often a counterpart on the other side. Here, too, we have to lower our heavy pulks together more often than planned. It’s truly hard labor, and all this in the harsh winter environment with often severely limited visibility. That’s not quite what we had in mind.
» Plan, start, adapt, execute – that’s the standard formula in mountaineering.
With a bit of luck, the adaptation phase can sometimes be avoided. «
With a bit of luck, the adaptation phase can sometimes be avoided. «
With a heavy heart, we have to change our plans. If we keep up the daily pace we’ve been maintaining over the past few days, we’ll soon be completely exhausted, and that would mean an early end of our trip. We still have the bigger part of the distance ahead of us. Good planning is everything, but on trips like this, in addition to a lot of improvisation, you often need that little bit of luck. Weather, local conditions, or restrictions can’t be planned in advance. So we adapt. At the end, a more refined route and shorter daily stages with less elevation gain were the key in moving forward. Instead of the planned Haute Route – the complete west-to-east crossing – we focused now on the western part of the mountain range. That’s not really what we had originally planned. But plans are often simple to make, and sometimes difficult to execute. In the end, with our adjusted strategy, we reached our new goal: our motivation increased from that point on, and we were able to enjoy the landscape more again.
Galdhøpiggen, Scandinavia’s highest mountain
At the end of our crossing, we still had the ascent of Galdhøpiggen, Scandinavia’s highest mountain, on our list. Early that morning, Kirsten slipped and fell onto her hand. We didn’t realize at the time that she had broken it thereby. Nevertheless, in
Planning and carrying out such an extensive tour is always a very exciting project. If you invest time in planning alternative goals during the planning phase, you can relatively easily switch goals during the tour when problems arise. But if you don’t have alternatives ready on hand, improvisation and adaptation – or a decisive change of direction – are the way to go. This marks the start of a new path with unknown variables. Meter by meter, day by day, step by step –
Facts
Let’s see where it is:
On tour:
29 March – 11 April 2026, together with Kirsten Steimel
Route:
Bøvertun – Dumdalen – Storevatnet plateau – Sognefjell – Utladalen – Tungehaugane – Storutladalen – Gravdalsdammen – Gravdalen – Leirvatnet – Visdalen – Spiterstulen
Length:
56 km, 2830 eg, 14 days.
Starting and end point:
Bøvertun and Spiterstulen. Both places are easily accessible by taxi from Lom.
GPS track:
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