Svolværgeita: Jumping the Goat's Horns

If the first words that just came in to your head were never in a million years, then you are probably in good company.  The Svolværgeita mountain in Norway was first climbed just a little over a century ago in 1910.  Yet since then a tradition has emerged among the mountaineering fraternity: those who reach the goat’s horns jump them. Because they can.

Image Credit Flickr User Sonia Marotti

The town of Svolvær in Norland County nestles below the mountain. It is situated in Lofoten (which we have visited before on Kuriositas) on the south coast of Austvågøy, and faces open sea to the south with the mountain directly to the north.   It is easy to see where the goats horns got their name. There are two spiky rocks which only the most experienced rock climbers can (safely) reach.

Would You Stand on The Kjeragbolten?

The name means the Kjerag Bolt – a massive 5 m³ boulder wedged in to a crevasse on the edge of the Kjerag mountain in Lysefjorden, Norway. Without the help of any mountaineering equipment, brave visitors can walk on to the bolt – it is said to bring good luck.

Image Credit Flickr User tgsaw

Yet there are consequences for those unsteady of foot: the nearest ledge is 241 meters below. Once you bounce off that there is a drop of a further 735 meters. So, the question is, would you – like these mad fools brave souls – stand on the Kjeragbolten? There is absolutely no Photoshop used here, so if you don’t like heights, look away now!

Image Credit Flickr User epicxero

Lofoten – Arctic Circle Anomaly

The archipelago of Lofoten in Norway is north of the Arctic Circle.  Yet throughout the year it has temperatures which belie its position.  

This is because of the largest positive temperature anomaly in the world relative to latitude.  

It makes Lofoten an unexpected delight – its early settlers must have thought they had stumbled across an arctic paradise.

Prepare to have your breath taken away.

Image Credit Flickr User Melenama

What they found there was a sea teeming with life and the largest deep water coral reef in the word.  There are literally millions of sea birds with many species represented, such as the sea eagle, the cormorant and the puffin.  Otter are common in the area and on the larger islands of the archipelago there are moose.

Storseisundet - The Bridge to Nowhere

Nervous drivers (and their equally nervous passengers) beware! You should really prepare yourselves for the sight of Storseisundet Bridge in Norway. The road connection from the mainland Romsdal peninsula to the island of Averøya in Møre og Romsdal county doesn’t look as if it actually connects as you drive towards it. In fact it looks very much as if you are in for an icy bath as you plummet off its 23 meters height.

Image Credit Wikimedia

Tuba Atlantic

How on earth does a short film about a dying old man and his enormous (musical) instrument get to be Oscar nominated.  By being Tuba Atlantic, that’s how.  Directed by Hallvar Witzø, it tells the story of 70 year old Oskar.  By that age we all know that the end is nigh-ish.

However for Oskar it’s in six days, according to his doctor.  The old Norwegian only has this time to make things up with his brother who he last heard from three decades previously.  To make matters more complicated he is visited by a well-meaning angel of death, Inger.  And then there’s the seagulls…

Vigeland Sculpture Park – Magnificent Obsession in Stone and Bronze

Image Credit Flickr User Victor Velez

Mention Gustav Vigeland (left) to a Norwegian artist and the eyes generally glaze over with fondness – he has a special place in many hearts in his home country and particularly in the city of Oslo.

There in 1921 the sculptor was given a building by the city from which he would work and live for over twenty painstaking years.

He left behind him a remarkable sculpture park which serves as a testament both to the artist himself and the political and cultural renaissance of Norway.