Sum­mer hiking rou­te up to Lars­breen des­troy­ed by lands­li­de

The moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers around Lon­gye­ar­by­en have a lot of gre­at hiking oppor­tu­ni­ties. Right now it looks like the­re is one less: the wes­tern part of the morai­ne of Lars­breen, which is part of the popu­lar sum­mer rou­te ascen­ding Lars­breen towards the gla­cier its­elf or the near-by moun­ta­ins (Troll­stei­nen, Sar­ko­fa­gen) has been stron­gly affec­ted by lands­li­des this sum­mer. This is gene­ral­ly a natu­ral pro­cess in a morai­ne area that con­sists of a thing lay­er of sedi­ment res­t­ing on steep slo­pes of clear gla­cier ice. The area had alre­a­dy been affec­ted by minor lands­li­des in recent years.

This summer’s lands­li­des took the area with the hiking rou­te from Lon­gye­ard­a­len up to Lars­breen. Now, the­re is a steep slo­pe of most­ly expo­sed gla­cier ice cover­ed with a thin lay­er of sedi­ment (mud and stones). The “way” below the slo­pe is expo­sed to fur­ther lands­li­des and rock­falls and hence curr­ent­ly not a safe alter­na­ti­ve.

It remains to be seen if the win­ter rou­te can still be used. Win­ter and sum­mer rou­tes are slight­ly dif­fe­rent and frost and snow chan­ge the ter­rain signi­fi­cant­ly. Mean­while, Lon­gye­ar­breen and Vann­led­nings­da­len remain gene­ral­ly available as hiking rou­tes up to Lars­breen, Sar­ko­fa­gen and Troll­stei­nen.

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