Olden is a village of a few hundred people at the head of the Nordfjord in Vestland, western Norway. It is a cruise call of some significance, receiving ships many times its own population, and the reason is what lies behind it: the JOSTEDALSBREEN, THE LARGEST GLACIER ON MAINLAND EUROPE.
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One honest note about the photographs. THE BRIKSDAL GLACIER AND THE LOEN SKYLIFT ARE THE TWO REASONS PEOPLE COME TO OLDEN AND NEITHER IS PICTURED HERE. The set is the fjord, the valley road and a cabin, which is what the village looks like rather than what the excursions deliver. Both are described below.
What Is Here
THE BRIKSDAL GLACIER is an arm of the Jostedalsbreen, reached by a road up the Oldedalen valley and then a walk of about three kilometres from the lodge, past a waterfall, to the viewpoint. Troll cars, open electric vehicles, carry those who prefer not to walk. THE GLACIER HAS RETREATED SUBSTANTIALLY and the viewpoint now looks at considerably less ice than the older photographs show, which is worth knowing before you go.
THE LOEN SKYLIFT is ten minutes away and is the steeper attraction in every sense: one of the steepest cable cars in the world, climbing from the fjord to MOUNT HOVEN at 1,011 metres in about five minutes. At the top there is a restaurant, a via ferrata and the long ridge walking, and the view down the Nordfjord is the best in the region.
The Oldedalen valley itself is the quiet pleasure, in the second image here: a glacial valley with a lake, farms and the road running up it to the glacier, which is a good cycle or an easy drive.
The Jostedalsbreen National Park is the context for all of it. The ice cap covers about 480 square kilometres and feeds dozens of glacier arms, of which Briksdal is only the most accessible from this side.
The cruise calendar governs this village the way it governs Flam. On a day with a large ship alongside, Olden has thousands of visitors and the Briksdal road and the Skylift queue reflect it; on a day without, it is a handful of houses by the water.
When to Go
May to September is the season: the Briksdal road open, the Skylift running, the cruise ships calling and the valley green.
June and early September are the best compromise between weather and crowds.
Check the cruise schedule rather than the calendar. As at Flam, a ship in port transforms the place, and the ports publish their calls.
Winter is quiet and much is closed, with the Briksdal road shut and the Skylift running a reduced service, though the fjord in snow is the frame at the top of this post.
Getting There
By car, about three and a half hours from Bergen or five from Oslo, on roads that include ferries and tunnels.
By cruise ship, which is how most visitors arrive, with the quay in the village.
By bus, services run along the Nordfjord from Stryn and connect to the longer routes, infrequently.
By air, Sandane and Forde are the small regional airports, with Bergen the practical one.
Norway's driving rules include one limit framed in a way that makes it immediately clear and two that catch visitors by surprise. ON ALCOHOL, the FCDO says that if you are found to have A QUARTER OF ENGLAND'S LEGAL LIMIT of alcohol in your system you may get a fine and possible imprisonment, and that THERE ARE FREQUENT ROADSIDE CHECKS. In practice that is one drink too many, so the working rule is none. ON TYRES, winter tyres with a MINIMUM 3MM TREAD are required if there is snow or ice on the roads, and studded tyres or chains may also be needed. And the two a visitor simply would not know: KEEP YOUR HEADLIGHTS ON, DIPPED, DURING THE DAYTIME ALL YEAR ROUND IN ALL PLACES, and ON ROADS NOT MARKED WITH A PRIORITY SIGN, THE YELLOW DIAMOND, YOU MUST GIVE WAY TO TRAFFIC COMING FROM THE RIGHT. That second one is the genuine hazard, because a car emerging from a side road on your right has priority and will take it. Driving offences carry on-the-spot fines of up to 10,000 Norwegian krone.
Note that reaching Briksdal and Loen both require onward transport from the village, which is the thing independent travellers underestimate.
Is Olden Safe for Women?
Olden is a tiny, safe Norwegian village and the risks are glacier and weather. Norway's advisory describes the conditions a packing list has to answer, and it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing. THE WEATHER CAN CHANGE QUICKLY, PRODUCING ARCTIC CONDITIONS EVEN IN SUMMER ON EXPOSED MOUNTAIN TOPS. THE WINTER IS LONG AND CAN LAST WELL INTO APRIL. TEMPERATURES CAN DROP TO MINUS 25C AND BELOW. THERE IS ALSO A HIGH WIND CHILL FACTOR, PARTICULARLY IN UNSHELTERED AREAS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES. Three things follow from that and they are not the same thing as owning a warm coat. A long winter means the shoulder seasons are winter, so an April trip is a winter trip. Wind chill rather than air temperature is what you dress against, which makes a windproof outer layer worth more than a thicker insulating one. And conditions changing quickly on a mountain in summer means carrying the layer you do not currently need, which is the entire argument for base layers that pack to nothing and do not hold damp.
DO NOT WALK ONTO THE GLACIER WITHOUT A GUIDE, and at Briksdal this needs saying because the ice looks approachable from the viewpoint. Glacier arms calve, the ice at the snout is unstable, meltwater channels run under it, and the terrain between the path and the ice is loose moraine. Guided glacier walks exist and are the only way onto it.
The Briksdal path is wet rock beside a waterfall and is slippery in any weather.
The Loen Skylift via ferrata is a technical route requiring equipment and experience, and the ridge walking at the top is exposed with fast weather despite the restaurant at the station.
Rockfall and landslide close roads in this region, which is the normal western Norwegian pattern rather than an unusual event.
Two Norwegian rules exist that a visitor is likely to break by accident and neither is about driving. POLICE ENFORCE BANS ON CAMPFIRES IN MANY HIKING AREAS DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS, which sits oddly beside Norway's famous right to roam: you may legally camp in a great deal of open country and still not be allowed to light anything. And DRONES require registration as an operator in Norway or an EU or EFTA country plus LIABILITY INSURANCE, with no-fly zones in force, so a drone packed for the fjords is a licensing question before it is a photography one.
The Olden Packing List
A wet fjord village with a glacier walk and a cable car to a thousand metres.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women is the right first layer here because every version of an Olden day involves being damp: the Briksdal walk passes a waterfall and is sprayed, the fjord is wet in most months, and the Hoven summit is cold air a thousand metres above a warm quay. Wool keeps insulating damp, which is the whole problem on this coast. A heavyweight merino base layer from September through May and for Hoven in any month.
Over it, an insulated mid layer and a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket with a hood that cinches, since western Norway rains in every month.
Merrell Moab 3 waterproof hiking boots with Darn Tough merino socks. The Briksdal path is wet polished rock and the Hoven ridge is mountain ground.
Kahtoola MICROspikes from October to April, and note that the moraine near the glacier is slippery year round without being icy.
Not linked and worth packing: a HAT AND GLOVES for the Hoven summit in any month; a DRY BAG for the camera on the Briksdal walk, where the waterfall spray reaches the path; a REFILLABLE BOTTLE, since Norwegian tap water is excellent and everything in a cruise village is priced accordingly; and WATERPROOF OVERTROUSERS, which on this coast are equipment. Norway is card-based throughout.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women in Olden
Emergency numbers: Norway uses three direct numbers and the distinction matters more here than elsewhere, because 112 IS THE POLICE NUMBER rather than a general router: 112 for police, 113 FOR AN AMBULANCE and 110 for the fire service. For a medical emergency, 113 is the faster call. All three work from any phone including a locked mobile and operators speak English. For a non-urgent medical problem, 116117 reaches the out-of-hours doctor service. And the one specific to this country: in the mountains and at sea, remember that the FCDO states EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE AND SEARCH AND RESCUE ARE LIMITED across the half of Norway inside the Arctic Circle, so the call connects quickly and the help may still be a long way off.
DO NOT WALK ONTO THE GLACIER WITHOUT A GUIDE. The ice at Briksdal looks approachable from the viewpoint and it is not: glacier arms calve, the snout is unstable, meltwater runs beneath it and the ground between the path and the ice is loose moraine. THE BRIKSDAL GLACIER HAS RETREATED SUBSTANTIALLY and the viewpoint now shows considerably less ice than older photographs. The walk is about three kilometres from the lodge on wet polished rock beside a waterfall, with troll cars for those who prefer. THE LOEN SKYLIFT climbs to 1,011 metres in five minutes and its via ferrata is a technical route needing equipment. CHECK THE CRUISE SCHEDULE rather than the calendar: a ship in port transforms a village of a few hundred.
US State Department travel advisory: the Norway advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/norway, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: there is no hospital in Olden. The nearest facilities are at Nordfjordeid, roughly an hour away, with Forde Central Hospital about two hours and Haukeland University Hospital in Bergen as the regional trauma centre at three and a half. Air ambulance covers the fjords and is the normal arrangement for a glacier incident. Norway is in the EEA rather than the EU, and that distinction does not cost you anything here: a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which in Norway means paying the same patient contribution a Norwegian pays rather than nothing. Travel insurance sits on top of it, and in Norway it should specifically cover SEARCH AND RESCUE AND AIR AMBULANCE, because the terrain rather than the medicine is what makes a Norwegian incident expensive. A pharmacy is an APOTEK, they handle minor problems without an appointment, and the larger towns have one open late. TAP WATER IS AMONG THE BEST IN THE WORLD and buying bottled water here is purely a waste of money. There are no required vaccinations and no endemic tropical disease. TICKS occur along the southern coast and in the south east, carrying Lyme and, in a narrow coastal band, tick-borne encephalitis, which is a reason to check after walking in long grass. The real medical risk in Norway is environmental rather than infectious: cold, wet and exposure, which is what the clothing on this page is for.
Official health authority: Helsenorge, the Norwegian public health service portal. covers the Vestland hospital network
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Oslo.
Official tourism authority: Visit Norway, the official travel guide. publishes the Briksdal road and glacier access information, the Loen Skylift arrangements and the Nordfjord cruise calls
Takeaways
Check the cruise calls first. A few hundred residents and several thousand visitors is a different village.
Never step onto the ice unguided. The snout is unstable and the moraine is loose.
Expect less glacier than the photographs. Briksdal has retreated a long way.
Do the Skylift as well. Five minutes to a thousand metres and the best view on the Nordfjord.
Solo women safety assessment: Olden is an extremely safe village and everything here is environmental or logistical. Norway has one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world, the village has a few hundred residents, English is universal and a woman travelling the fjords alone is unremarkable. NORWAY'S EMERGENCY NUMBERS ARE SPLIT RATHER THAN POOLED: 112 IS THE POLICE, 113 the ambulance and 110 fire. The FCDO warns that conditions can change quickly and produce ARCTIC CONDITIONS EVEN IN SUMMER on high ground, which applies to Mount Hoven above the village. THE FIRST HAZARD IS THE GLACIER AND IT IS UNDERESTIMATED BECAUSE OF HOW CLOSE THE PATH GETS. The Briksdal arm looks approachable from the viewpoint and it is not: glacier arms calve without warning, the snout is unstable, meltwater channels run beneath the ice, and the ground between the path and the ice is loose moraine that is slippery year round. Guided glacier walks exist and are the only legitimate way onto it. THE BRIKSDAL PATH ITSELF is about three kilometres of wet polished rock beside a waterfall and is slippery in every weather. THE SECOND IS HOVEN, because a five minute cable car ride to 1,011 metres puts you on exposed ridge terrain with fast weather while a restaurant at the station makes it feel otherwise, and its via ferrata is a technical route requiring equipment and experience. THE THIRD IS THE ROADS, since rockfall and landslide close them in this region as a normal pattern rather than an exceptional event. One practical note rather than a safety one: reaching both Briksdal and Loen requires onward transport from the village, which independent travellers consistently underestimate.
Reading On
Olden is the Nordfjord and the glacier country. The Geiranger packing list covers the fjord north and the Alesund packing list the coastal town, with the Trollstigen packing list and Atlantic Road packing list for the two famous roads. South, the Flam packing list and Aurland packing list cover the Sognefjord, the Trolltunga packing list the Hardanger and the Bergen packing list the city most trips start from. Inland, the Telemark packing list and Oslo packing list cover the south east. North, the Lofoten packing list, Svolvaer packing list, Tromso packing list and Svalbard packing list cover the Arctic. For the country the Norway travel guide for women and the Norway packing list carry the transport, the weather and the practical material in full. For why wool is the only fibre that works damp, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
