The Briksdal arm
A 45-minute walk past waterfalls to the front.
CC BY-SA 3.0 · Municipal Archives of Trondheim from Trondheim, Norway — CC BY 2.0 · Municipal Archives of Trondheim from Trondheim, Norway — CC BY 2.0 · Øyvind Holmstad — CC BY-SA 4.0
Do not attempt it from Bergen in a day. The sensible shape is within a three or four day fjord itinerary: Bergen to Flåm and the Nærøyfjord, then Sogndal, then Jostedalsbreen (Nigard or Briksdal), then Loen or Geiranger. A car is far easier than public transport here. Book the glacier walk ahead in summer, as licensed guides are limited in number.
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Jostedalsbreen is the largest glacier in continental Europe: some four hundred and seventy square kilometres of ice covering a high plateau north-east of Bergen, more than six hundred metres thick at its deepest. The main mass is invisible from any road, but dozens of glacier arms descend from it into the valleys — and those are what visitors see. The best known are Briksdalsbreen, reached on foot in about forty-five minutes from the car park past waterfalls, and Nigardsbreen, crossed to by small boat over a glacial lake. The ice is retreating at a rate measurable year on year, and markers along the paths show where the front stood in given years — the distance between the marker and the ice today is the message. Walking on the ice itself is possible but **only with a licensed guide and equipment**; approaching the front unguided is dangerous because blocks calve off.
A 45-minute walk past waterfalls to the front.
Crossed to by small boat over a glacial lake.
Jostedalsbreen National Park, Vestland