Briksdalsbreen

About this place

Briksdalsbreen is one of the most accessible and best known arms of the Jostedalsbreen glacier, in Stryn Municipality in Vestland, western Norway, inside Jostedalsbreen National Park. It lies in the Briksdalen valley about 25 km south of the village of Olden, about 19 km in a straight line from it. The glacier ends in a small glacial lake 346 metres above sea level. Its size depends on both temperature and precipitation: it retreated 800 metres between 1934 and 1951, uncovering the lake, then advanced 465 metres between 1967 and 1997 until it covered it, drawing attention in the 1990s for growing while other European glaciers shrank. After 2000 it retreated again, and since 2007 its front has stood on dry land behind the lake. A path runs up a narrow green valley between towering mountains streaked with waterfalls, beside a churning glacial river. At the valley's end the blue-white ice front appears above a calm turquoise lake, and purple flowers line the track in summer. Visitors reach it on an easy walk from the car park, about an hour each way. Keep back from the ice edge, as blocks can fall.