On Tuesday, we had the option to go on a trip to a nearby Glacier,
Briksdalbreen. I had actually been thinking before the trip that I should try to see a glacier before they all melt, so it was quite fortuitous.
Entire album of glacier pics:
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| Briksdalbreen Glacier |
It was raining, and continued convincingly enough that people bought ponchos at the guest shoppe before starting the walk/hike. They were 20-40 USD. Definitely knew they had a captive audience. I was wearing a borrowed
raincoat (hoodless) and my floppy hiking hat, which did a decent job of
keeping off the rain. En route to the glacier, it stopped raining. The rain clouds made a beautiful setting for our hike, complemented by the rushing waterfalls and low-lying mists.
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| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
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| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
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| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
The signage as we approached made it clear that the glacier had shrunk significantly since 1920:
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| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
We stopped as close to the glacier as possible, which was still pretty far, due to some fences. I'm guessing they've had problems with people climbing on/under/in the ice, based off the pre-trip warnings we were given.
The kitchen crew had given us the materials to pack sandwiches for lunch,
which we made into a picnic. While eating, a very small piece of the glacier dislodged and rolled down a bit, surprisingly loudly.
The glacier is blue. Honestly blue. You can kind of see it in the pictures.
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| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
It's also wayyyyy bigger thgan it looks. I should've had a person in the picture for scale. You can kind of get an idea by comparing the picture of the glacier and the glacier melt (with people),
The glacier melt is this eerie cerulean blue that does not inspire one to
drink of it.
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| From Briksdalbreen Glacier |
We were warned that drinking glacier water doesn't go well -- as in, the runs :P. Something about the sediment.
