Our trip today
We arrived at Mo i Rana yesterday night and we checked in to a cheap hotel called Svartisen Hotel, it’s unmanned which means we had to go get our room key down the street in the Ole Tobias hotel (a Best Western). Because we had a particular hike in mind, we kind of knew that we weren’t going to be able to make it and leave on the same day, so we do some math and decide that we can afford to stay an extra night in Mo i Rana. I had paid EUR 63,- for the hotel, which really has a totally acceptable room (albeit with no service). When Paul paid for the second night directly at the hotel, he paid EUR 53,- which made our day. We slept well.
Today, we got up at 07:30 because we knew that we needed to forrage a little bit for our breakfast (it’s not served in the hotel, but there is a mess hall and kitchen we felt free to use). The store opened at 08:00 sharp so we marched in, got some edibles, including a nice sliced bread and I insisted to get Nescafe oploskoffie which I used to hate but for some reason has grown on me. I missed my orange juice up in the Lofoten, so I got a pack of that, too.
Back at the hotel, we went to the basement room with about 50 chairs or so, all completely empty, breadbaskets left out unused, and the room was unlit. But it did not stop us, and we proceded to have a wonderful breakfast for two. I saw in the kitchen that there were pots and pans so I was briefly bummed out because we could’ve (should’ve!) boiled some eggs, but to my surprise, Paul conjured up two hard-boiled eggs from yesterday. Such a smart fellow!
Just before 9am we hopped in the car, and I noticed that Tessa refused to present the door-handle for the driver’s seat. The door does open and close, but I guess we’ll have to limp along with that small downside from now on. We drive the car to Svartisen Rana, some form of cabin at the South end of lake Svartisvatnet. It’s currently unused, and there’s two campervans there with folks fixing to start their day. We dash past and start our trek along the North shore of the lake.
Hiking Svartisvatnet to Svartisen
Online I had read some horror stories from folks complaining about the mud, matsch, zomp and other theatrical “Don’t go there”-style warnings. But they all do say that after the zomp comes a nice 3km hike to the glacier itself, and they kind of all recommend taking the boat from here to the North shore. We don’t though, because either (a) we are manly men, who would not think twice to sit on some stinkin' boat, or (b) there is no service today. You pick.
So off we go, alternating between the mud and matsch on the one hand, and the rocky shores on the other. We both much preferred the shores, the rocks have some mineral sediment on them, and when the sun dries it out it feels a little bit like the magnesium powder athletes put on their hands, it’s very grippy and we do not slip and slide over the rocks at all. Every now and again, the rocks become hard to pass, because there’s shrubs and trees sticking out trying to make our lives more … interesting. So we scurry back onto the muddy path for a few hundred meters until we find a spot to go back to the shores. It’s kind of fun: we oscillate between “Oh crap, this mud sucks” and we walk on the rocks. Then, 15 minutes later, “Oh crap, these trees suck” and off to the mud we go.
But then eventually, the roaring sound we’ve been hearing in the distance comes into focus for us. We turn the corner, and pop out of the woods like Jacks in the box, and all of the sudden we’re at the Northern shore with a little boat dock, and the watch informs me that this is the 4km mark. Cool! We spend a few minutes at the dock resting our legs and eating a muesli bar; and then we get on our way to the part everyone keeps on saying is fun. They are not wrong!
The walk up varies in landscape significantly from the muddy forest below. Here, clearly the glacier has smoothened the rocks considerably over the millenia when it was still sticking out this far. Now, the edges of this valley are smooth, and in the middle a reasonable white water is jetting down. Paul approaches it and I take a picture of him. Me? I’m a little bit less Gung Ho.
Østre Svartisen
From here, the trail is clearly marked with cairns that have bright red stripes painted on the rocks, and it’s 3.0km from the boat docks to the glacier. We make our way up there quickly, the terrain is relatively easy to cross. Then we round a corner, and there she is!
What a stunning view we are treated to, and with the Sun shining bright on the ice. Svartisen in Norwegian means black ice, but it’s not dark or dirty at all. It’s shimmering in all sorts of blues, whites, and it’s massive. The picture even being a wide angle doesn’t do it justice. This glacier is 370km2, and the tongue we’re walking towards is named Austerdalsisen, in the eastern arm aptly called Østre Svartisen.
We have lunch there, some Knäckebrot with Jarlsberg cheese (this tastes a bit , but not quite like Swiss Emmental). We goof off a little bit at the tippy of the glacier, we cannot resist making the Thumbwars Tongue joke, to make it all official. And if you don’t get that reference and had to click on the YouTube video, never mind then, we’re off!
And back again!
The hike back goes quicker somehow. Firstly, we chopped off 800m by beelining it from the glacier to the boat dock, we skip most of the round-about way getting there. Don’t be fooled - this does not save us any time whatsoever, but we do feel like it gives the hike that extra little special touch. Back at the dock, we nom on some chocolate chip cookies, and Paul guilts me into eating all four (even though I was happy eating only two). He simply inhales his.
After forcing ourselves and each other to get up from this overly comfy dock (for a brief moment we just wanted to stay “I guess we live here now!"-style), we hoof it in high gear back to the car. We only stop a few times to take some really nice overview panoramas with our phones, as mostly we’ve seen this part already :-) We’re making excellent tempo here, it’s 4km back and we split them at 16m44s, 16m46s, 16m22s, mostly because at this point it no longer matters if our shoes get muddy or our feet get dirty, and also we tend to walk much more on the rocks on the way back, and also, perhaps now that it’s later in the afternoon, the weather has made some more of the wetness disappear? I dunno, but we are definitely back at the car lickety-split. We bumped into a couple + dog about 700m from the parking lot, and they asked us if we had went to the glacier and how far is it. We gave them our stats so far, and wished them a nice hike. They’re definitely out and about late, as it’s already nearing 3pm and we clocked 4h48min of hiking time plus of course a good hour of hanging out at the glacier and boat docks combined. If they do that too, they’ll be back at like 9pm or so! But not us, we reach Tessa at 15:22 and that’s it. Job well done. A truly memorable experience!
What’s next?
Tomorrow we check out of our Svartisen Hotel in Mo i Rana, and we’ll drive down south a little bit trying to split the distance to Jotunheimen in two. We figure that driving the larger half first to Trondheim makes sense, so that the next day we have only a short trip to Gjendesheim.
Paul found us a nice restaurant called No.3 just across the real hotel where we checked in, about 800m walk from ours. We had the same meal: cheeseplate as a starter and 500g T-Bone steak as a mains. I took a bottle of Tempranillo because, as one convinces themself, after hiking 2200kCal, surely one can eat 3000kCal in one meal?
At dinner, I found a great hotel with a swimmingpool for our next stay, but unfortunately I typed the date of today not tomorrow, and tomorrow it’s not available. Well, we find a more expensive hotel, because why not, smack in the middle of town, so I guess tomorrow evening is sight seeing in Trondheim (a thing that I am actually already looking forward to, even though my legs at the moment are not). We charge the car to 361km, which is more than enough to land us to one intermediate charging point tomorrow, and then on to Trondheim. I have a chuckle as Paul stumbles out of the car (legs objecting vehemently) to unplug the charger. This happens to me all the time! Back at the hotel, not many words are spoken, although Paul phones home for a little bit. We both fall asleep and snooze like a log.
It was a big and beautiful day.
