Hardangerjøkulen

Hardangerjøkulen
	View from Hårteigen to Hardangerjøkul
location	Vestland ( Norway )
Mountains	Scandinavian mountains
Type	Plateau glacier
surface	73 km²
Coordinates	60 ° 32 '0 " N , 7 ° 25' 0" E Coordinates: 60 ° 32 '0 " N , 7 ° 25' 0" E
	Rembesdalskåka foothills
	West side of Hardangerjøkuls and trekking on the plateau

The Hardangerjøkul is a plateau glacier in southwest Norway and is the sixth largest glacier of the country.

Its name is derived from its location in the Hardanger region and the Norwegian word jøkel for glacier. In maps and literature one often reads Hardangerjøkulen , which is the specific Norwegian form and means Hardangerjøkul .

location

The glacier is located south of Finse on the Bergen Railway at the north-western end of the Hardangervidda in the area of the municipalities of Eidfjord and Ulvik in the province of Vestland . Its extension is 73 km² and its highest elevation is, the sources divide here, 1863 moh. or 1876 moh. This makes it the fifth or sixth largest glacier in Norway.

The foothills of Hardangerjøkul are Middalen, Blåisen, Torsteinsfonna, austra (eastern) and vestra (western) Leirbotnskåka and Rembesdalskåka. The latter reaches below 1100 moh. down. As with almost all Norwegian glaciers, these glacier tongues have retreated significantly since 1939.

tourism

Hardangerjøkul is very easy to reach from Norway's two largest cities, Oslo and Bergen, via the nearby Finse train station . From here, hiking trails maintained by the DNT lead west and east around the glacier and further south into the Hardangervidda. In addition, hiking trails lead north to Skarvheimen .

Guided glacier hikes and ice climbing courses are offered from Finse. In winter, a marked ski route leads over the glacier. On the western edge of the glacier, at 1304 m, is the DNT hut Demmevasshytta, which is only accessible by ski .

history

The glacier was formed around 2000–3000 years ago and is therefore not a remnant of the glaciers that formed the Hardangervidda. Conditions on and around the glacier are comparable to those in the Arctic and Antarctic . For this reason Roald Amundsen and his rival Robert Falcon Scott have prepared their polar expeditions here.

During the Second World War , in the winter of 1940/41, the German crew tried at great expense to set up an airfield on Hardangerjøkul. This was supposed to test the idea of attacking the USA by air via Iceland and Greenland. These attempts were stopped unsuccessfully, because from 1941 onwards the USA established bases on Greenland.

The glacier was used as the filming location for the 1980 film The Empire Strikes Back for scenes on the ice planet Hoth , including a memorable battle in the snow.