BY W. CECIL SLINGSBY
Concerning the mountains of Norway, their geography and the history of their exploration, a considerable amount of published information is already available for mountaineers: it is, therefore, unnecessary to do more than give a general idea of the mountaineering potentialities of the country, and of the facilities of travel and provisioning.
Guide-books and Literature.
Baedeker is excellent as a general guide, and a copy should be in the hands, and to some extent also in the head, of at least one member of every mountaineering party. In addition, maps should be obtained of each district which the climbers intend to visit. The Amts Karter, price 1 krone each, will answer this purpose.
There are no ‘Climbers’ Guides’ for Norway, though many books deal more or less with its mountains. The great mountain classic is Norway and its Glaciers, by Professor J. D. Forbes. Mrs. Aubrey le Blond has dealt solely with one group, the mountains of Lyngen Fjord, in Mountaineering in the Land of the Midnight Sun. This is of use to those who wish to climb between lat. 69° and 70°, but is not of service in Central Norway. New Climbs in Norway, by Mr. E. C. Oppenheim, deals also with certain individual peaks. There is an excellent book in Norsk on the Söndmöre Alps, near Aalesund. Norway, the Northern Playground, is the result of many years’ experience on my own part, but barely touches the romantic regions of Arctic Norway. The Alpine Journal has many papers by many authors on all parts of the country.
NORWEGIAN PEAKS
NORMAN COLLIE
Of late years Norsk mountaineers have been very active, not only in Norway and in the Alps, but also in far-off Himalaya and the Southern Andes. The Aarbog of “Den Norske Turist Forening” virtually resembles an alpine journal, and its illustrations of glaciers and aiguilles are valuable. It has had for many years mountaineering papers both in English and Norsk. Every one who intends to climb in Norway should become a member of this most useful club. He will have considerable privileges, connected with mountain huts, etc. No mountaineering qualification is required; merely a small subscription. T. Bennett & Sons, or F. Beyer (Tourist Agents at Bergen), as well as the keepers of the tourist huts, will enrol members. There is also an inner circle, the “Norske Tinder Klub,” whose mountaineering qualification is at least as high as that of the Alpine Club.
A slight knowledge of the language is essential. Norsk is easier for north-country folk to acquire than for southerners, as much of our northern dialect is almost identical with Norsk. As an outcome of perhaps laudable ultra-patriotism, great changes, which in the main lead to a simplification of the language, are being made. The natives themselves during this period of transition apparently have no fixed rules of spelling, and a foreigner need not feel uneasy on the subject. The greatest difficulty in connection with this phase is that—so far as I am aware—there is no Norsk-English dictionary which has adopted, or at present can adopt, the spelling mostly in use.
Season.