Galdhöpiggen (2)

This is a continuation from the two posts: Conquering a Mountain Galdhöpiggen (1)

These photos are from the second stretch toward the top of Galdhöpiggen.

After the break, we start climbing again. When we do, this is what we see. The top is basically fully visible behind a thin cloud. The tiny specks on the left side of the mountain are people. We wished we could exchange places with them.

There were two things that struck me about this part of the hike. First, it was rather steep, as seen in the photo, and you often had to crawl on all fours.

Second, at times the mountain was filled with people. Not only was our group 150 persons, but other large groups and families were also there. I even saw two dogs. Galdhöpiggen is no doubt a popular summit to climb.

Finally we got close to the top.

And the feeling of getting there was great. Here I am again with Johannes, Mattias, and Jehoshua.

It was fun to see the inside of the top cabin, especially this wall. Inflation has surely struck this mountain: 30 Norwegians crowns for some water or juice; 30 crowns for a chocolate bar; and 50 crowns for a cinnamon role. Hmm… I’ll pass, please.

Are, one of our Norwegians friends, wanted to get a better view.

Before starting our descent I took this shot. It startled Johannes a bit because one meter in front of me was a huge drop of a couple of hundred meters. He yelled at me: “Dad, back away, you’re gonna get killed!” I thought that was good advice, so I backed off.

Anyway, this photo shows our path to the top… kind of. Can you see the three smaller glaciers behind the huge one covering half the photo? Well, behind and below the middle glacier, that’s were we started. Then we walked up to this gigantic glacier, walked over it with ropes, and then on to the ridge you see on the right side, which we followed until we reached the top.

And now it was time to go down again.

Coming to the lower part of the ridge, strapping on the ropes once more…

… and down we go.

When getting to the bottom I wanted to take a photo of this glacier lake. So desolate, yet so beautiful.

I asked Johannes if he thought we’d ever climb here again. He said: “Of course we will! And we have to bring the whole family next time!” I replied: “Let’s do that!” I wouldn’t mind climbing this pile of rock again!