Nigardsbreen is the most visited outlet glacier of Jostedalsbreen, and the place where most people in Norway get their first experience of walking on ice. It flows down into a valley accessible from Gaupne via Jostedalen, and the infrastructure here is better than at any other glacier arm: car park, cafe, boat shuttle, guided tours for anyone over five years old. You get crampons, a harness, and a guide who knows where the crevasses are. The walks range from easy introductory tours to full-day blue ice hikes deep into the glacier. You cannot go on the ice without a guide.
The retreat of Nigardsbreen is the most visible climate story in western Norway, and it plays out in how long it takes you to reach the ice. Around 2000, the glacier nearly touched the lake. You parked your car, took the boat across, and you were there. By 2012, it was park, take the boat, then walk 30 to 40 minutes. Now you cannot even see the glacier from the car park. You take the boat, then walk 90 minutes before you reach the ice. The lake Nigardsbrevatnet has grown enormously, swallowing ground that was under ice within living memory.
This glacier kills people. In 1986, a Danish woman and her eight-year-old daughter were standing near the ice face when a chunk came down and killed them both. In August 2014, a German couple in their thirties finished a guided tour, then walked back to the glacier front on their own. A wall of ice broke off and crushed them both at the glacier gateway. Their two children, eight and ten years old, stood there and watched their parents die. In 2018, a 38-year-old Austrian man stepped past the safety chains with about ten other tourists to get closer. A block of ice weighing several tonnes calved off the glacier, hit the meltwater river, and the wave threw him in. Two others were swept into the water but survived. He did not. Three separate incidents, three decades apart, all the same story: people crossed the line, the glacier did not care.
The retreat of Nigardsbreen is the most visible climate story in western Norway, and it plays out in how long it takes you to reach the ice. Around 2000, the glacier nearly touched the lake. You parked your car, took the boat across, and you were there. By 2012, it was park, take the boat, then walk 30 to 40 minutes. Now you cannot even see the glacier from the car park. You take the boat, then walk 90 minutes before you reach the ice. The lake Nigardsbrevatnet has grown enormously, swallowing ground that was under ice within living memory.
This glacier kills people. In 1986, a Danish woman and her eight-year-old daughter were standing near the ice face when a chunk came down and killed them both. In August 2014, a German couple in their thirties finished a guided tour, then walked back to the glacier front on their own. A wall of ice broke off and crushed them both at the glacier gateway. Their two children, eight and ten years old, stood there and watched their parents die. In 2018, a 38-year-old Austrian man stepped past the safety chains with about ten other tourists to get closer. A block of ice weighing several tonnes calved off the glacier, hit the meltwater river, and the wave threw him in. Two others were swept into the water but survived. He did not. Three separate incidents, three decades apart, all the same story: people crossed the line, the glacier did not care.