One Great Hike: Besseggen Ridge

The Besseggen Ridge is a mountain ridge in Vågå, Norway that lies east of Jotunheimen, between two lakes: Gjende and Bessvatnet. They claim that the Besseggen Ridge was forged by Thor's anvil on the earth, creating lakes on either side of the mountain ridge. It is considered one of the most spectacular and popular day hikes in Jotunheimen National Park, deservedly so. BUT.

And here's just a tiny BUT.

I think that some of the descriptions, especially from Norwegian perspectives might be a little generous for your average hiker. Look at the name they call it by: The Besseggen Ridge Walk. Doesn't that seem easy and gentle? You will read about how children do this no problem and almost as an afterthought, they will mention that there is a short, narrow, steep portion of the hike. The first sign that things maybe weren't as they seemed was the fact that before you make this final ascent they offer you the option of taking a much longer detour.

Why would you take this detour?

Because the steepest section of the trail is really and truly a hands and feet scramble on a 1 km narrow ridgeway. For us, this was made more complicated by the fact that when we did it, we were battling 60km/hr winds and a (somehow still) dear friend who was paralyzed by fear. 

I've come up with a little quiz to see how you will do on this hike. This way, there won't be a moment when you legitimately think "Ok, I guess the only way we're getting off is if they somehow bring in a helicopter and drop a ladder, Cliffhanger style".

So, if you can answer yes to all of the questions below then you will have NO problem, and it will be a walk in the park for you:

1. Do you or have you regularly hiked in areas like Colorado, Utah, Washington State, Patagonia, the Andes, the Alps or other similarly mountainous regions?
2. Do you frequently attempt multi-day hikes?
3. Are you a rock climber?
4. Do you have zero fear of heights?

If you answered "no" to all or most of those questions, I STILL think you should do this hike. The views are incredible and while it was physically challenging, its nothing exceptional if you are moderately fit and take your time. When you are done it might just be the best thing you did the entire time you were in Norway. I know it was for us.

I just busted this out in Excel real quick, so apologies if it's not 100% correct, but should be pretty close. The entire trail is approximately 17 km from the boat drop off back to the parking lot.

In order to start the hike, you will probably want to take the ferry from Gjendesheim. There is a parking area above the ferry terminal and you can pay for parking in the cafe. The ferry will take you to Memurubu where you can start the Besseggen Ridge hike. Alternately you could walk from Gjendesheim to Memurubu and then take the ferry back to the car park. 

We wanted an early start so took the morning ferry from Gjendesheim to Memurubu.You can book the tickets ahead of time and download a QR code to your phone to make loading easy. In fact I would recommend this in case it takes you a little longer than you're expecting to get there. 

The views from the boat were incredible if you're willing to brave the wind!

The ferry is a short ride to the trail start, and once you disembark, there is a public restroom, some benches and in my case people with dogs who were willing to wait while I took pictures with them.

I had everything but the poles and flashlight. I feel like hiking poles are something I need to wait until I'm 40 to use.

Oh, are you nervous about the hike? Ok because this guy did the damn thing with 2 babies strapped to him. I think the littler one was 3 months old.

A very nice Norwegian couple let me borrow their dog and walking staff for this picture. They also had a puppy with them that they said would just hop into their backpacks when it got too tired. sleepy babies.

If you hike from Memurubu to Gjendesheim, you will be greeted almost immediately with amazing views.

So amazing, that we honestly probably wasted nearly an hour doing a series of photoshoots no more than 1 km from the trail start.

Do we look tired? Because we literally had barely done anything at this point.

Once you do get a move on, the first hour or so is a bit of a steep incline, which levels out to a part of the trail called "The Strip". This is where you will be able to view both lakes from a strip of land in the middle. Lake Bessvatn is on the left (as you're walking towards Gjendesheim) and approximately 1374 meters below, Lake Gjende is on the right at approximately 984 meters below. You can tell the difference between them because Lake Bessvatn is blue, while Lake Gjende is more of an aqua/green color.

Moving on past the split, you will soon approach the base of Besseggen ridge itself. This is a natural stopping point for lunch and offers you the option to proceed on a longer detour back to Gjendesheim instead of climbing the ridge itself. Certainly if it is very wet and windy it would be smart to consider the detour. It was just windy so despite the mounting anxiety of one in our group we pressed on.

It is at this point that you will climb to the highest peak of the ridge, at about 1743 meters.

We don't have a lot of pictures from the hike up the ridge for these reasons:

1. It was windy as hell. 
2. Our friend Deepu was literally paralyzed by fear and I had to retrace all of my footsteps and play the most harrowing game of follow the leader you can imagine
3. Our friend's Misty and Stephanie had to cling by their fingertips and toes on loose rock lodges as patient as can be while we figured our way up. I'LL TRY!

But eventually we made it up, and after a banana and some calming lavender spray, Deepu was refreshed and ready to press on.

I shouldn't make light of the fact that this picture probably captured one of Deepu's worst moments to date, but she was amazing and finished the whole thing on her own. There is absolutely something to be said about a person who can go from wearing diamonds and (faux) fur, eating anniversary dinners at the Ritz Carlton to trekking up a mountain in Norway dressed like a little Indian boy named Deepak. Also, it was just really damn funny (in retrospect).

Once we descended the ridge, it was a long and fairly uncomplicated walk over Veslefjell Mountain and back to the car park in Gjendesheim. There were a couple steep, rocky parts and at one point we had to descend with the aid of a chain, but after the hike up the ridge it honestly felt like a nice, easy stroll across an admittedly rocky landscape.

I was able to get this great shot of Jorge on our way out. Taking shots like these requires one person to walk quite a bit out of the way just for the picture, and usually I'm too lazy for both of us to do it so I say that I'll just take a pic of Jorge and pretend it's me (you can't tell, right?) but then I feel really guilty about lying to myself and the internet in general so here are my confessions.

So, have you or will you hike the Besseggen Ridge? You really should, just let me know ahead of time if I have to baby step it up with you.