Galdhøpiggen (2,469 m): A Comprehensive Guide to Norway’s Highest Peak from Spiterstulen

Galdhøpiggen (2,469 m a.s.l.) is the highest peak in Norway, the Scandinavian Mountains, and all of Northern Europe. It is located in Jotunheimen National Park, famous for its vast glaciers, stunning lakes and valleys, and endless stone deserts. The summit is situated in central Norway, approximately 350 km from Oslo. Galdhøpiggen is part of the Crown of Europe.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

1. Galdhøpiggen – practical information
2. Learning patience in the Visdalen valley
3. The route to Galdhøpiggen via the Spiterstulen variant
4. Galdhøpiggen summit – on the roof of Norway
5. Trip map
6. Galdhøpiggen – a brief history of human exploration

Galdhøpiggen – practical information

The most popular starting point for trips to Galdhøpiggen is the private mountain lodge Spiterstulen (1,111 m a.s.l.) located in the Visdalen valley. The facility has accommodation for about 280 guests, a large dining room, its own campsite, and bathrooms with hot showers. The lodge is not open year-round. In 2024, it was open from March 15 to May 5 and from May 31 to October 29. An asphalt road leads to the lodge, so it is easily accessible by car. The only issue might be the costs: you have to pay for both the road access and the parking space at Spiterstulen.

In Norway, it is legal to camp anywhere, provided you leave the site in the same condition you found it. However, in the case of the Visdalen valley, we must keep in mind that Spiterstulen has a sort of exclusivity for providing accommodation within a one-kilometer radius of the facility. To camp for free, we simply have to move the appropriate distance away from the lodge.

A marked hiking trail leads from Spiterstulen to Galdhøpiggen. The route is quite physically demanding but does not require crossing a glacier (and therefore does not require carrying extra kilograms of equipment). The trail from the lodge to the summit itself is 6 kilometers long and requires overcoming a 1,400-meter elevation gain. The route allows you to summit two other 2,000-meter peaks besides Galdhøpiggen – Svellnose (2,272 m a.s.l.) and Keilhaus topp (2,355 m a.s.l.). This is the variant I will describe in this post.

An alternative route to Galdhøpiggen leads from the Juvasshytta lodge (1,841 m a.s.l.), the highest mountain lodge in Norway and the entire Scandinavian Peninsula. Despite the significant altitude, an asphalt road reaches there as well. The variant from Juvasshytta crosses the Styggebrean glacier, so tackling it requires proper equipment and the skills to use it. For this reason, this trail is available to tourists only in the company of a local guide. Other trivia: near the Juvasshytta lodge, there is a lower station of a ski lift. As you might guess, it is the highest ski resort in Scandinavia.

You can find more practical information about traveling and camping in the Jotunheimen mountains in a dedicated post. If you are looking for information about the history of Galdhøpiggen’s exploration, you will find it at the end of this article.

Learning patience in the Visdalen valley

Today, the alarms go off at a very early hour. No surprise there: our plan for the day is extremely ambitious. Since heavy rainfall stopped us in the Veodalen valley for the whole day before yesterday, today we want to summit Norway’s highest peak in the morning and move our camp several kilometers in the afternoon.

Well, plans are one thing, reality is another. The morning greets us with more rain and complete cloud cover. A slight consternation settled over our camp. We are all aware that pushing upward in such conditions makes no sense, but at the same time, with every hour of delay, our chances of realizing today’s plan decrease. Ultimately, the rational option won. After analyzing the weather forecast, we decide to postpone the ascent to Galdhøpiggen until this afternoon and slightly modify our plan for the remaining days in Jotunheimen. The length of the Norwegian day gives us some comfort when planning. It only gets dark around 11 PM, so we can afford to conquer Norway’s highest peak in the conditions we dreamed of.

Ok, so we’re resting again! Some of us use this moment to visit the nearby private Spiterstulen lodge once more. It is, in fact, a very famous place among Jotunheimen travel enthusiasts. The owners of the facility claim that as many as seventeen mountain peaks measuring over 2,300 m a.s.l. remain within a one-day trek from Spiterstulen. We use Spiterstulen mainly to replenish our water supplies and… gummies. As for the latter, you have to be very careful in Norway. Remember that a very popular flavor for local gummies is pitch-black licorice…

Waiting for the right conditions is also a good opportunity to fully appreciate the charms of the place we are currently in. I will remember the Visdalen valley as one of the most beautiful places I have been able to see during our Norwegian expedition. And the conditions? The conditions seem to be gradually improving hour by hour. It stops raining, and the clouds begin to lift slightly. We look at the sky with hope, and all this waiting causes us to feel a hint of excitement.

The route to Galdhøpiggen via the Spiterstulen variant

Finally, we set out from the camp a few minutes after 5 PM. At a fast pace, we cover the only flat section – a kilometer from our tents to the Spiterstulen lodge. Then, we cross the bridge over the Visa river and essentially start the actual ascent right away. It’s immediately clear that the trail is used more often than other routes in Jotunheimen National Park. In the initial stage of the hike, we walk on a comfortable and wide path winding in switchbacks up the steep slope. The trail is marked with the letter “T” painted on stones in red. As we gain altitude, an interesting panorama of the Visdalen valley and the Spiterhøe massif (2,033 m a.s.l.) towering over Spiterstulen opens up.

The higher we get, the more harsh our surroundings become. While a few isolated trees could be spotted at the bottom of the valley, at an altitude of about 1,500 m a.s.l., the only element of the landscape is ubiquitous stones. With every meter, the beaten path stands out less and less until it finally disappears completely. We walk through an endless, rocky desert, carefully looking for cairns smeared with red paint. About an hour and a half of ascent passes when the first patches of unmelted snow begin to appear on our route. We will even have to cross one of these patches.

The ascent is quite physically demanding throughout. Although we are hiking light, nearly 1,400 meters of elevation gain over 6 kilometers takes its toll (for comparison – the route from Kuźnice to Świnica requires a similar elevation gain but over 9 kilometers). The task is also not made easier by the uneven, stony ground, which requires maintaining focus with every step. There are, however, no technical difficulties on the ascent. We only use our hands sporadically and exclusively in the summit sections.

Around 8 PM, we check in at the first summit of the day – Svellnose (2,272 m a.s.l.). Despite considerable cloud cover, from the peak we spot the bodies of two massive glaciers: Svellnosbrean is on the left, and Styggebrean is on the right. Styggebrean alone extends over an area of as much as 5 square kilometers, which is almost 10 times larger than the largest glacier in the Pyrenees, Aneto. While descending from Svellnose, we have the opportunity to walk along the edge of this massive frozen mass. Honestly? I feel a bit of pride. It so happens that this is the fourth year in a row that I’m spending my vacation on a glacier. And well, looking at these majestic white expanses, I conclude that I don’t intend to break this beautiful streak.

We are now walking along a short ridge section. We descend to a shallow pass (2,250 m a.s.l.), only to ascend again a moment later to the second summit of the day – Keilhaus topp (2,355 m a.s.l.). I won’t hide it, we’re starting to hurry. The watches on our wrists relentlessly remind us that even taking the local long days into account, it’s already quite late. From Keilhaus topp, we can already see the main goal of today’s trip – the roof of Norway wrapped in a thick cloud.

Galdhøpiggen summit – on the roof of Norway

Between Keilhaus topp and Galdhøpiggen, we have the opportunity to walk a few steps on a small section of the Styggebrean glacier. And then? Then it’s just the final 100 meters of elevation gain, the last parts of the stony ascent, and we have it! We are on the highest peak in Norway! It’s 9 PM, so the entire hike from the camp past Spiterstulen took about four hours.

At the summit, there is a small stone shelter – Knut Voles Hytte. During the day, snacks and non-alcoholic drinks are sold here, but at 9 PM the place is, of course, long closed. The building was constructed in 1975 and was named in honor of an outstanding Jotunheimen mountain guide – Knud Olsen Vole. He became famous, among other things, for founding the Juvasshytta lodge and making the first winter ascent of Galdhøpiggen in 1888.

On the Internet, one can read that on clear days, Galdhøpiggen offers a panoramic view over an area exceeding 35,000 square kilometers (this is roughly the size of the entire Masovian Voivodeship). Although we cannot enjoy such visibility, compared to the morning conditions, we really have no reason to complain. Views of the surrounding glaciers (and particularly Storjuvbrean, which borders Galdhøpiggen to the west) emerge from under the thick clouds from time to time.

After spending about fifteen minutes at the summit, we head back. We descend the same way we got here. Once again, we cover the small section of the glacier and the ridge section running through the summits of Keilhaus topp and Svellnose. Descending on stony terrain requires continuous concentration, so our descent pace is not very impressive. The improving weather also adds its two cents! The clouds are slowly parting, revealing more and more details of the surrounding landscape.

The visibility improves to the point that a few minutes after 10 PM, on Svellnose, we see the sun for the first time today. We stop and take comfortable seats, for Nature is inviting us to one of her most beautiful spectacles. For several wonderful minutes, we observe the Galdhøpiggen massif in the glow of the setting sun. It is magical! And as if that weren’t enough, an extremely clear and mysteriously delightful Brocken specter appears right next to us.

The spectacle, a brief katharsis, and time to return to reality! We push again through the stone desert, laboriously losing more meters of altitude. We brighten up the monotonous descent with a passionate game of 3P. Believe me, the lower we get, the stranger the terms become… Thanks to the evenly spaced cairns, choosing the right direction of travel does not pose major problems. Well, okay… it doesn’t pose problems for most of us, because I personally end up off-trail quite often. So if, like me, you are among the absent-minded, it’s better not to take the lead here :-).

Twilight falls a few minutes after 11 PM. It may not be pitch black, but we decide to take out our headlamps. We reach our camp slightly after midnight – tired, but satisfied.

Trip date: July 24, 2024

Trip statistics: 14 km, 1,400 meters of elevation gain

You can find the next part of our Jotunheimen vacation description at this link.

Trip map

Galdhøpiggen – a brief history of human exploration

I understand that not everyone is a history lover, which is why I placed information on this topic at the end of my post. Nevertheless, I sincerely encourage you to read it. If anyone is interested in such trivia, they will surely find something for themselves here.

For many years, Snøhetta (2,286 m a.s.l.) in the Dovrefjell range was considered the highest peak in Norway. This mountain is perfectly visible from the Oslo – Trondheim route, while the harsh and inhospitable Jotunheimen remained undiscovered for a long time. For this reason, the first ascent of Snøhetta was made as early as 1798, a time when hardly anyone had heard of Galdhøpiggen.

In 1844, the famous Norwegian geologist Baltazar Mathias Keilhaus along with two students made the first attempt to climb Galdhøpiggen. He was not an anonymous figure by then. Keilhaus had participated in the famous research expedition in 1820, which went down in history as the “discovery of Jotunheimen.” Unfortunately, the attempt ended in failure. Due to terrible weather conditions, Keilhaus decided to withdraw. The highest point the researcher reached at that time was later named after him – it is the Keilhaus topp we already know.

Galdhøpiggen remained unclimbed for six more long years. In 1850, the maiden ascent was made by local residents – Steinar Sulheim, Ingebrigt N. Flotten, and Lars Arnesen.

Steinar Sulheim is, incidentally, a quite interesting figure. In 1844, he founded the Spiterstulen mountain farm, to which he eventually added an annex for tourists. Sulheim was one of the first to recognize the tourist potential of Jotunheimen and decided to monetize it slightly. Steiner died in 1856, but his vision survived. The descendants of the first owner continued the work of transforming the mountain farm into a tourist lodge. As Jotunheimen’s popularity grew, so did Spiterstulen. Interestingly, the facility is still run by Steinar Sulheim’s descendants. Currently, it is the seventh and eighth generations.

As mentioned above, the first winter ascent of Galdhøpiggen was made by the legendary guide Knud Olsen Vole in 1888.

With the development of modern measurement technologies, Norwegians ceased to have doubts that their country’s highest peak is located in the Jotunheimen mountains. Until recently, however, exactly which one remained an unresolved issue. Besides Galdhøpiggen, the nearby Glittertind was a contender for the prestigious title of the roof of Scandinavia. The whole problem was based on the fact that unlike Galdhøpiggen, Glittertind was once covered with a 30-meter layer of glacier. Without the glacier, it was 2,452 m a.s.l., and including the permafrost – 2,481 m a.s.l. So a definitional problem arose – where does the peak end? At the highest point of the rock, or at the highest point of the glacier covering the mountain? One could say the problem solved itself. Due to climate warming, the glacier on the summit of Glittertind gradually shrank over the last hundred years until, finally, in September 2023, it eventually melted away. Galdhøpiggen thus emerged victorious from the battle for the top spot in Scandinavia, and the defeated Glittertind must humbly settle for the silver medal. It’s just a bit of a shame about the glacier…

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