Jotunheimen

Jotunheimen
Range
View from Galdhøpiggen
Country	Norway
County	Sogn og Fjordane and Oppland
Part of	Scandinavian Mountains
Highest point	Galdhøpiggen
- elevation	2,469 m (8,100 ft)
Orogeny	Caledonian orogeny

Jotunheimen (English: The Home of the Giants) is a mountainous area of roughly 3,500 km²^{[citation needed]} in Southern Norway. Jotunheimen is a part of the long Scandinavian Mountains range. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are in Jotunheimen, including the very highest - Galdhøpiggen (2469 m). Jotunheimen straddles the border of the counties Oppland and Sogn og Fjordane.

View from Knutshøi towards central Jotunheimen

The Jotunheimen area contains the Jotunheimen National Park, covering 1,151 km²^[1] since 1980. The mountain range Hurrungane is inside the national park with the sharpest peaks in Jotunheimen. Adjacent to the national park border is Utladalen Nature Reserve covering the valley Utladalen and Falketind among other mountains.

Jotunheimen is very popular among hikers and climbers, and the Norwegian Mountain Touring Association maintains a number mountain lodges in the area, as well as marked trails between the lodges and to some of the peaks.

The image from Gjende shows a cliff trailing down into the lake. At its base there is a popular guest house called Memurubu. The picture is taken from Gjendesheim, a starting point for hiking into the mountain range. There is a very popular trail along Besseggen that follows the edge of the mountainous range to the right, which it is named after.

There is a National Tourist Route the Sognefjell Road from Skjolden to Lom. There is a other road the RV 51 from Gol to Vågå through a special area the Valdresflya.

The name

Originally there was no common name for this large mountainous area, but in 1820 the geologist B. M. Keilhau proposed the name Jotunfjeldene "the mountains of the giants" (inspired by the German name Riesengebirge). This was later changed to Jotunheimen by the poet Aasmund Olavsson Vinje in 1862 - and this name/form is directly inspired by the name Jötunheimr in Norse mythology.

References

See also

• Eidsbugarden
• Tourism in Norway
• Jens Esmark

External links

• Tilltopps - Hiking in Jotunheimen.
• Photos of Jotunheimen
• Map
• Sognefjell Road
• Jotunheimen in pictures
• Besseggen trek in photos

At Memurubu, looking over Lake Gjende towards Gjendebu

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jotunheimen

Coordinates: 61°38′N 8°18′E / 61.633°N 8.3°E / 61.633; 8.3