Finse: A Taste of Antarctica in the Heart of Norway

Introducing Finse, a tiny place excessive up within the mountains of Norway that is lengthy been used as a coaching base for polar explorers.

In the event you’ve ever taken the world-famous Oslo to Bergen railway between Norway’s two largest cities, you’ll have stopped excessive up within the mountains at Finse.

Far too small to be known as a city and barely a village, Finse consists of a prepare station on the Bergen line, a resort, an alpine analysis centre and only a handful of lakeside cabins. There aren’t any roads to different settlements.

In the event you go to in the summertime, Finse is an excellent place to start long-distance hikes or cycle rides by means of the Norwegian wilderness though some snow stays on the peaks. However within the winter, it’s a completely completely different expertise.

In actual fact, winter circumstances on this mountain plateau are stated by many polar explorers to be as shut as you will get to Antarctica with out touring south. It’s dry, chilly and remoted, with little or no pure shelter when the fierce winds blow.

A fantastic base for fiction

If it feels like the proper setting for eerie goings-on, you’d be proper. Norway’s former minister of justice turned crime author Anne Holt set her locked-room mystery novel 1222 on the resort following a prepare derailment throughout a blizzard.

“After a prepare crashes excessive within the Norwegian mountains, the survivors, wounded however initially optimistic, battle their method by means of the snow to a close-by resort, 1,222 metres above sea stage. Because the temperature falls and the strain between factions – a Muslim couple and a shrill right-wing tv presenter, hoodied youths and shady businessmen – rises, individuals begin to die, and it is as much as Hanne to puzzle out what is basically an icy model of the locked-room thriller.” – The Guardian

There is a truthful probability you’ve got by no means heard of 1222 earlier than, however I will wager you’ve got heard of one other piece of fiction associated to Finse.

In 1979, producers of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Again selected to movie scenes in and round Finse. The frozen lake Finsevatnet and the glacier Hardangerjøkulen had been the proper stand-ins for Echo Base on the ice planet Hoth.

Through the years the world has attracted many Star Wars lovers. The largest occasions have been for anniversaries. In 2010, individuals travelled from as distant as Los Angeles to mark the thirtieth anniversary of the discharge of the movie.

Coaching for Antarctica expeditions

Norway has an extended historical past of polar exploration. Roald Amundsen, probably the most well-known Norwegian explorer, led expedition groups that first efficiently traversed the Northwest Passage, crossed the North Pole by air, and reached the South Pole by trekking throughout Antarctica.

Amundsen spent at the very least a while in Finse coaching for his expeditions, as did fellow polar explorers Ernest Shackleton and Robert Scott.

Now, one enterprising firm is providing budding polar explorers the possibility to study survival skils, tenting and cross-country snowboarding methods with skilled polar guides, simply as these well-known names did within the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration.

Shackleton Challenges host a six-day ‘polar abilities problem’ at Finse together with prepare tickets to Finse, expedition coaching, all meals and lodging, a 10-mile ski tour and tenting experiences from round $8,000.

Report-breaking polar explorer Louis Rudd now works as director of expeditions with Shackleton Challenges.

“We selected Finse as a result of it’s the religious coronary heart of the exploration neighborhood,” he informed Nationwide Geographic. “To assume that Robert Falcon Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Roald Amundsen skilled right here sends shivers down my backbone.”

The historical past of Finse

The resort now in place at Finse was initially a small mountain lodge opened together with the Bergen line in 1909. It was initially meant as a security precaution simply as a lot as for tourism.

On the time, taking a prepare over the Norwegian mountains was seen as a dangerous exercise. So the lodge was constructed together with a number of different locations that may act as a spot of refuge within the occasion of the prepare getting caught.

King Haakon, Ernest Shackleton, Fridtjof Nansen, Karen Blixen, the Prince of Wales and polar father and pilot Tryggve Gran had been among the many well-known names to go to Finse throughout its early years.

Throughout World War II, the occupying Nazi forces took management of the resort. They’d plans to ascertain an airstrip on the close by glacier to check how chilly climate would impact aviation gasoline. In addition they established a bigger facility, which after the battle turned Finsehytta lodge.

When to go to Finse

After all, you don’t have to affix an expedition coaching camp to take pleasure in Finse. The Finse 1222 Hotel provides snug lodging to all friends, not simply polar explorers.

In the summertime, biking and mountain climbing are common actions. Some individuals even cease off on the resort for only a few hours for a espresso and a brief stroll earlier than becoming a member of the following prepare departure to proceed their journey.

Keep in mind the variety of every day departures on the Bergen line is not that high these days, so you may must plan such a visit rigorously.

Within the winter, friends can take pleasure in cross-country snowboarding or attempt their hand at ski crusing. In the event you plan on exploring by your self, you need to have at the very least some expertise in harsh winter environments.

Learn how to get to Finse

The one strategy to attain Finse from Oslo or Bergen is by rail on the Bergen line. E-book tickets effectively prematurely to get the bottom fares of round $30. Journey is time is 4.5 hours from Oslo and a pair of.5 hours from Bergen.

Have you ever been to Finse? How was your expertise? Tell us within the feedback under.