The National Park of Ice

High above us, behind the mountain ridges on both sides of the valley, Jostedalsbreen stretches out of sight. We cannot see it from here – but it is there. Always. Jostedalsbreen is the largest glacier on the European mainland. It covers an area of approximately 190 square miles (500 square kilometres) and is at its thickest point close to 2,000 feet (600 metres) deep. Think about that: 2,000 feet of ice, stacked up like a wall of frozen time. Its highest point lies at 6,421 feet (1,957 metres) above sea level, and the glacier sends out a series of glacier arms – ice tongues – down toward the valley floors on all sides. The glacier became part of the Jostedalsbreen National Park in 1991, and today the park is one of Norway's most important protected areas. It is not only the ice that is protected – it is the entire system: the mountains, the meltwater rivers, the wildflower meadows, the birdlife and the rare plants found only in the immediate vicinity of the glaciers. And one of those glacier arms – one of the ice tongues from this vast plateau – is where we are headed now.