Blue ice
Deeply cracked.
Wolfgang Hägele — CC BY-SA 4.0 · Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — CC BY 2.0 · Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — CC BY 2.0 · Richard Mortel from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — CC BY 2.0 · Zairon — CC BY-SA 3.0
Engabreen is an outlet glacier of the Western Svartisen ice cap in Meløy Municipality, Nordland county, northern Norway, about 72 km southwest of Bodø in a straight line. It lies south of the Holandsfjord, inside Saltfjellet-Svartisen National Park, close to the Arctic Circle. Western Svartisen is the second largest glacier on the Norwegian mainland, covering more than 200 square kilometres. Engabreen ends at the lowest point of any glacier on the European mainland, its front lying just 20 metres above sea level in 2007. The name Svartisen means black ice, as its old ice is darker than fresh snow. The glacier arm retreated about 800 metres between 1999 and 2024, and a research laboratory lies beneath it. Cracked blue ice pours down between grey rock walls, almost reaching the Engabrevatnet lake at its foot. Green mountains with snowy tops surround it, and the still water mirrors the ice. The glacier has drawn tourists since the 1890s because it is easy to reach and can be seen from the fjord. Many visitors cross the fjord by boat and then walk towards the ice. Do not go near the ice front or onto the glacier without a guide.
Deeply cracked.
At the foot.
By boat.
Meløy, Nordland, Norway
By boat across the Holandsfjord, then on foot.
Only with a guide.