Galdhøpiggen by night

I climbed this in the evening to avoid the large crowds. Starting 17.30 I met a few people on their way down the first hour, but after that I was alone on the mountain which suited me fine. The first part of the route is an endless slope from about 1100 to 1900 meters. Luckily the view is fine. Both Styggehø and Hellstugutindene look nice from here. Then I turned a little right and reached the summit ridge below the first summit "Svellnosi". I could cleraly see the hut "Juvasshytta" and the glaciers Styggebreen and Svellnosbreen. When approaching the second summit Keilhaus topp, (2355 meters) the weather was deteriorating fast. This part of the route follows a path at the top of a glacier. It is safe, but only if you follow the path excactly For a while it was easy, but at some parts the snow was too hard to leave any footsteps. When the fog closed in I had to stop somewhere at the bottom of "Piggbreen" glacier. There was a sign stating that one should follow the sticks when crossing the glacier, but there were no sticks on the glacier (!). I thought og Keilhau who tried to climb Galdhøpiggen twice, but never made it past Keilhaus topp. He must have turned around about where I was sitting in similar weather conditions. I really felt bad and turn up the volume of my walkman, but I could not continue past the dangerous glacier in the snow and fog. After a few minutes the weather cleared just enough for spotting the other end of the glacier, and I could cross it (running!). Some 15 minutes later I reached the summit hut. There were two people in the hut watching fotball on TV. They invited me in. The clock was 21.20. They offered me some coffee and I inquired them of the sign and the missing sticks. They told me they knew. Outside it was a real blizzard, and I did not really want to walk all the way down that night, but I did not want to bother the (nice!) guys by asking to stay the night, so I wandered out at 21.45 when the second period of the football match started. Before heading down I walked the 20 meters or so from the hut to the real summit. I couldnt see a thing which of course was somewhat sad. I could follow my own footstep in the fresh snow past the first glacier, and then the blizzard got a little less angry. It was not really dark either, but I still chose to use my headtorch the last part. I reached the Spiterstulen at about 23.30. regards Bjørn Revil