Mountain · Norway
Galdhøpiggen
Galdhøpiggen in Norway's Jotunheimen range reaches 2 469 metres and is the highest summit in Norway and in all of Northern Europe. Three men from Lom got there first, in 1850.
Picture credit: TomasEE (CC BY 3.0) · TomasEE (CC BY 3.0) · Kristoffer Trolle (CC BY 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Galdhøpiggen?
Galdhøpiggen is part of the Jotunheimen.
You will find it in: Norway.
Summit: 61.636° N, 8.313° E
The story behind it
The name means the peak of Galdhø: gald is an old word for a steep mountain track, and hø means a big, rounded mountain. The first people known to have stood on top were three men from the village of Lom in 1850, the guide Steinar Sulheim, the teacher Lars Arnesen and the church warden Ingebrigt Flotten. The mountain sits in Jotunheimen, a name taken from Norse mythology that means home of the giants. The short route starts at the Juvasshytta cabin at about 1 840 metres and crosses the Styggebrean glacier, where a guide ties everyone onto one long rope because snow can hide cracks in the ice. Children from about seven years old walk it every summer, and a small hut at the summit sells hot drinks. For a long time the neighbouring Glittertind counted as higher, because the thick ice cap on its head added metres; as that ice shrank, Galdhøpiggen took the title back. The ice of Jotunheimen keeps old things safe too: melting snow patches have released a leather shoe thousands of years old and an arrow with its wooden shaft and feather still attached.
Find it on the globe
Galdhøpiggen is there as a small peak with its own shape — a horn, a ridge, a volcano — standing on the surface. From far away the planet is only a blue ball; detail arrives as you zoom in, and this one appears once you are close enough. Open it on the globe.
It sits at its real coordinates, not near them — the same numbers listed in the facts above. Switch off the layer for this kind of place and it disappears again; the buttons for that are down the right-hand edge.
Questions children ask
How high is Galdhøpiggen?
2 469 metres. That is the highest point in Norway and in Northern Europe, but only about half the height of the highest peaks in the Himalaya.
Where is Galdhøpiggen?
In the Jotunheimen mountains in central southern Norway, in the municipality of Lom in Innlandet county, inside Jotunheimen National Park.
Why do walkers rope up on the way to the summit?
The short route from Juvasshytta crosses the Styggebrean glacier, where fresh snow can bridge over cracks, so a certified guide links the whole group onto one rope.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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