Southern Norway

When the 2022 season was being planned, it was assumed that all the glaciers of Norway and Sweden would be photographed. A house was rented for almost three months, a base of operations arranged, automotive transport brought in, and the like.

Within a few days after arrival, it was apparent that the weather is too difficult and expanses too grand in Scandinavia to complete that much terrain in one summer glacier season. The goal was immediately revised downward to focus on the glaciers of the southern part of Norway, largely south of Trondheim, as there is a sizable gap between 63 and 65N without glaciers. The northern part of Norway and Sweden would have to wait until next summer.

As it turned out, it was barely possible to complete even that revised goal…which at the last minute, it was done. This summer was terrible by even Norwegian standards, with lots of rain, clouds, and cold temperatures, and even a threat of midsummer snow, which managed to not materialize. There were many cold afternoons in July with a fire in the wood stove, keeping the cabin heated while waiting on the weather.

Complications were abundant. A part of the engine failed inspection, and engineers had to be brought in to replace a cylinder, which involved working overnight to get the plane back together, followed by some days lost to flight tests and other steps necessary to get the plane back in service. Following that, the Associated Press sent a small team to follow us around for two weeks, working on a short documentary. While it is fantastic for our mission and spreading the word, it turned out to be an incredible amount of work to mix glacier photography around the film shoot.

The season ended with an increasing crescendo. The weather improved somewhat in August, allowing for an almost crazed schedule of flying and photography, culminating in one last 8 hour flying day with nearly 4,000 photographs taken. Then it was time to point the nose south and drop off the plane in the Netherlands, for some scheduled airframe upgrades.

Next year it will be somewhere north of the Arctic Circle, to get the rest of the glaciers of Continental Scandinavia.

What are some observations?

  • The glaciers here are more likely to cover the top of a mountain ridge, in a dome-like fashion, with smaller outlets. The Alps are more likely to be the opposite, with a steep, pronounced summit and the glaciers running down the sides, possibly accumulating below in a flatter area, followed by a longer outlet.
  • Recession is not as clearly evident here as the Alps. The Alps are almost painful as they leave evidence of the 1860 maxima behind, showing some glaciers already gone, or nearly gone. The glaciers of Norway sometimes didn’t show outlet recession until a few decades ago, owing to different mechanics of moisture, elevation, and temperature. With smaller outlets, glacial loss is not as easy to spot. It is presumed great losses of ice would show a reduced summit dome, though that requires comparative photography to observe.
  • Evidence from the air shows sometimes repeated glacial maxima at various outlets, compared to a clear 1860 maxima in the Alps.
  • Proximity to the ocean is a big part of the story. Jostedalsbreen, the largest glacier in Continental Europe, is not far from Jotunheimen, the national park with the highest peaks north of the Tatras in Europe. Jostedalsbreen is at between 1600 and 2000 meters, whereas glaciers in Jotunheimen are found usually between 1800 and 2300 meters, and are significantly smaller. Jostedalsbreen is much closer to the Atlantic than Jotunheimen. Further Ålfotbreen, even closer to the water, has its glaciers at 1200-1500 meters, indicating astronomical snowfall in winter as a reason behind the existence of the glacier.

 

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