Kleivafossen

Briksdal Glacier, Sogn og Fjordane County, Norway

About Kleivafossen


Hiking Distance: about 5.4km round trip (to base of glacier)
Suggested Time: 2.5-3 hours (to base of glacier)

Date first visited: 2005-06-30
Date last visited: 2019-07-19

Waterfall Latitude: 61.6644
Waterfall Longitude: 6.83508

Waterfall Safety and Common Sense

Kleivafossen was basically my waterfalling excuse to talk about our memorable out-and-back hikes up to the terminus of the Briksdal Glacier (Briksdalsbreen).

The falls flowed on the Briksdalselva, which the glacier itself directly sourced and produced both its power as well as the powder-blue glacial flour so common in glacially-fed drainages.

Briksdalsbreen_201_07192019 - Kleivafossen and an afternoon rainbow
Kleivafossen and an afternoon rainbow

According to Norgeskart the falls had about a 37m drop with a bit of a wishbone shape as there appeared to be some kind of protruding (dare I say phallic?) rock splitting the lower part of the falls.

My GPS logs suggested that the falls sat at about the one-third of the way along the nearly 3km long hike (each way) to the terminus of the Briksdal Glacier.

Even though it wasn’t necessary to do the whole hike to see the falls, it would have been a mistake not to keep going to the glacier, because the experience was as surreal and atmospheric as they come!

Indeed, there was something special about witnessing a glacier as vertical and as intimate like this.

Briksdalbreen_064_06302005 - Julie right at the terminus of the Briksdal Glacier during our first visit here in 2005
Julie right at the terminus of the Briksdal Glacier during our first visit here in 2005

It kind of made us feel a personal connection with the earth and its systems even though we were thousands of miles away from home.

Hiking to Kleivafossen and the Briksdal Glacier

Right from the get go, the car park at the end of the road (see directions below) provided photo ops as we could see the Volefossen and hints of neighboring glaciers at the head of the Oldedalen Valley.

From there, I hiked up past the Briksdal Fjellstove and then past the Trollbil (Troll car) pickup area before going onto a path that paralleled the graded road leading up to the glacier.

Despite the developed nature of the hike, it was mostly uphill (about 200m in net elevation gain).

Briksdalsbreen_137_07192019 - Looking back at Volefossen and the Briksdal Fjellstove. The green-black car on the lower part of this picture was the Trollbil
Looking back at Volefossen and the Briksdal Fjellstove. The green-black car on the lower part of this picture was the Trollbil

So for those not up for doing the nearly 6km round trip hike, the Troll car might be an attractive option.

After all, it reduced the overall elevation gain to only 40m while reducing the walking distance to about 700m or 1km (1.4-2km round trip) depending on how close to the glacier you go.

In any case, I opted to walk the whole way, and the trail continued on by gently climbing alongside the rushing Briksdalselva before reaching a lookout area for Kleivafossen at about 800m from the car park.

From this vantage point, the road bridge fronted the waterfall so it was possible to take a brochure-like photo of hikers or even the Trollbil silhouetted on the bridge in front of the base of the falls.

Briksdalsbreen_170_07192019 - View of Kleivafossen from the signed lookout by the rock with the Gløvregang sign on it
View of Kleivafossen from the signed lookout by the rock with the Gløvregang sign on it

Right behind this viewing area was a curious big rock with a crack that had a sign saying “Gløvregang” attached to it.

I believe the glacier might have deposited this rock here at one point.

The path continued onto the bridge and then into the spray zone of the Kleivafossen as the road started to make switchbacks to climb alongside the falls.

I recalled having to walk up all of the switchbacks back in 2005, but on my latest visit in 2019, the footpath branched off from the road between the first and second switchbacks.

Briksdalsbreen_232_07192019 - Looking back down at Kleivafossen where the phallic nature of the rock splitting its lower part seemed really apparent from here
Looking back down at Kleivafossen where the phallic nature of the rock splitting its lower part seemed really apparent from here

So after climbing up steps alongside the Kleivafossen (and seeing the “phallic” nature of the rock protruding from its base), the trail then rejoined the road near the footbridge spanning the Briksdalselva.

At this point, most of the elevation gain was behind me, and I started to get my first glimpses of the Briksdal Glacier further up the valley.

The footpath continued eastwards as it approached the imposing glacier, eventually reaching a large cul-de-sac area where the Troll car would drop people off (nearly 2km from the car park).

At this point, the trail narrowed even more and became more of a conventional hiking trail as it continued to follow along the Briksdalselva towards the foot of the Briksdal Glacier.

Briksdalsbreen_299_07192019 - Looking across the Briksdal Valley towards the barely visible Tjøtabreen and the unofficially-named Tjøtafossen below it
Looking across the Briksdal Valley towards the barely visible Tjøtabreen and the unofficially-named Tjøtafossen below it

In the more open stretches of this hike, I could see across towards the north-facing wall of the Briksdal Valley where the Tjøtabreen Glacier clung to the top of this wall while producing a waterfall beneath its terminus (which could be called Tjøtafossen).

Eventually at about 700m from the Trollbil drop-off area, I reached an area by the shores of the lake fronting the Briksdal Glacier.

When Julie and I first came here in 2005, we actually kept walking until we got right up to the terminus of the glacier.

There were neither ropes nor guardrails preventing us from getting right up to the wall of ice itself though in hindsight, we probably played with fate as the ice could haved calved at any minute and collapsed on us.

Briksdalsbreen_342_07192019 - Looking towards the Briksdal Glacier as of my latest visit in July 2019
Looking towards the Briksdal Glacier as of my latest visit in July 2019

That said, we did notice a couple of well-equipped people doing a glacier walk atop Briksdalsbreen (something we’ve done in the past at the Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand).

Sadly, this was no longer possible when I last came here in 2019 due to the terminus rising high enough on the mountain that reaching the ice now would require technical equipment.

It took me about 75 minutes to get to the overlook of the glacier terminus and the lake in front of it.

When Julie and I were first here, it took us 90 minutes since we went a little further to get closer to the glacier.

Briksdalbreen_076_jx_06302005 - We noticed there were some people doing a glacier walk atop Briksdalsbreen on our first visit in 2005. This picture shows where they were relative to the full height of the glacier arm
We noticed there were some people doing a glacier walk atop Briksdalsbreen on our first visit in 2005. This picture shows where they were relative to the full height of the glacier arm

Finally, as much as we wanted to linger around here, we noticed a lot of annoying black flies that would persistently buzz around us.

I didn’t recall knowing what they were nor whether they would bite, but there were enough of them that it felt like they wanted to get into our noses and mouths.

When I came back in 2019, I happened to get a bite from one of them, which left a bit of an itchy welt, and only then did I realize that these buggers were midges!

So these bugs conspired to make us move on sooner rather than later, and we ultimately returned back down the same trail that we went up.

Briksdalsbreen_256_07192019 - Context of the Briksdal Glacier with part of Tjøtafossen and the Briksdalselva as seen on my hike in 2019
Context of the Briksdal Glacier with part of Tjøtafossen and the Briksdalselva as seen on my hike in 2019

Given that it was now mostly downhill, it only took Julie and I about 60 minutes to return to the car park.

It took me about 50 minutes when I did this hike solo on my second visit 14 years later.

Kleivafossen, Briksdalsbreen, and Climate Change

While we’ve done glacier hikes before and looked at before-and-after photos of glacier recession in the literature, the Briksdal Glacier was the one instance where I witnessed the before and after states of the glacier firsthand.

Thus, we have firsthand documentation (photos) and experiences to definitely confirm that the Global Warming consequences are real.

Briksdalbreen_060_06302005 - This was the Briksdal Glacier when we first saw it at the very end of June 2005.  That's Julie in the lower left of the picture near the glacier terminus
This was the Briksdal Glacier when we first saw it at the very end of June 2005. That’s Julie in the lower left of the picture near the glacier terminus

When we made our first visit at the very end of June in 2005, Julie and I quite literally walked right up to the terminus of the glacier while well-equipped glacier walkers were higher up the sloping ice sheet.

We also noticed a side glacier called Tjøtabreen producing a light-flowing streaking waterfall on the Tjøtaelva on the north facing wall of the Briksdalen Valley.

And we saw icebergs floating slowly on the glacial lake.

When I returned to Briksdalsbreen in July 2019, the ice had retreated so high up the mountain that it was no longer possible to reach the terminus of the glacier doing just a hike.

Briksdalsbreen_317_07192019 - The Briksdal Glacier as seen from my second visit in mid-July 2019
The Briksdal Glacier as seen from my second visit in mid-July 2019

Taking the place of the former location of the glacier terminus was a new waterfall.

Meanwhile, the same thing happened to the Tjøtabreen, where its terminus was now at the very top of the mountain while the streaking waterfall had a lot more volume (so much so that it ought to be called Tjøtafossen).

The icebergs that once floated on the lake have also disappeared as the Briksdalselva moved so rapidly that any ice chunk would quickly get destroyed over the Kleivafossen if it even made it that far.

As a result of these changes to the sourcing glacial ice of the Briksdal Glacier, I noticed that Kleivafossen seemed to have more volume and power on my 2019 visit as opposed to my 2005 visit as it blasted a lot more mist onto the trail.

Briksdalsbreen_180_07192019 - Looking back at the mist from Kleivafossen blasting the Trollbil road and trail leading up to Briksdalsbreen. It seemed like the falls had pumped more spray in 2019 than on our first visit in 2005
Looking back at the mist from Kleivafossen blasting the Trollbil road and trail leading up to Briksdalsbreen. It seemed like the falls had pumped more spray in 2019 than on our first visit in 2005

This experience made me wonder if the “better” performance of the falls belied the more ominous implications of what these changes meant in the big picture concerning their consequences overall.

So, like with the Krunefossen experience, I had that strange feeling where the new waterfalls made me appreciate them more as a waterfaller while at the same time quite sad that it shouldn’t be this way.

Authorities

Kleivafossen resides in the Stryn Municipality near Olden in Sogn og Fjordane County, Norway. For information or inquiries about the area as well as current conditions, visit their website or Facebook page.

Briksdalsbreen_121_07192019 - The visitor center and cafe area at the Briksdal Fjellstove as seen during my July 2019 visit. This photo and the next several came from this visit
Briksdalsbreen_139_07192019 - The foot trail leading up the Briksdal Valley towards the Briksdal Glacier
Briksdalsbreen_152_07192019 - The foot trail following along the Briksdalselva, which was rushing with the glacial meltwaters sourced by the Briksdal Glacier
Briksdalsbreen_162_07192019 - Contextual view towards the Kleivafossen as I was approaching the signed viewing area by the rock with a Gløvregang sign on it
Briksdalsbreen_178_07192019 - Approaching the bridge over the Briksdalselva at the foot of the Kleivafossen
Briksdalsbreen_185_07192019 - Looking back at some people getting blasted by the spray of Kleivafossen
Briksdalsbreen_195_07192019 - When the late afternoon sun was showing itself, I was getting rainbows in its mist
Briksdalsbreen_235_07192019 - Looking back over the phallic rock at the foot of Kleivafossen towards the trail or Trollbil road from where the trail was about to deviate from the road itself
Briksdalsbreen_242_07192019 - Above Kleivafossen, the trail leveled out as it was now following the hanging valley ultimately leading to Briksdalsbreen
Briksdalsbreen_255_07192019 - Distant look at the Briksdal Glacier as of my 2019 visit
Briksdalsbreen_268_07192019 - Some mountain goats that appeared to be domesticated in the Briksdal Valley
Briksdalsbreen_269_07192019 - Context of the trail and Tjøtafossen in the distance
Briksdalsbreen_283_07192019 - Continuing the atmospheric hike that led me closer to the terminus of the Briksdal Glacier
Briksdalsbreen_289_07192019 - Looking right up at Tjøtafossen and what was left of the Tjøtabreen Glacier above it
Briksdalsbreen_297_07192019 - The Briksdal Trail was now following along the Briksdalselva
Briksdalsbreen_303_07192019 - Looking back across Briksdalselva towards the Tjøtafossen as I was getting closer to the Briksdalsbreen
Briksdalsbreen_321_07192019 - Finally making it up to the lookout for the Briksdal Glacier on my 2019 visit
Briksdalsbreen_319_07192019 - All focused in on the waterfall that replaced the glacial ice that where the Briksdal Glacier once stood
Briksdalsbreen_396_07192019 - Focused right at the very end of the Briksdal Glacier where water was rushing out of its mouth
Briksdalsbreen_395_07192019 - More zoomed in look high up at the north-facing cliff wall holding up Tjøtabreen and the waterfall beneath it
Briksdalsbreen_410_07192019 - On the mostly downhill return hike from Briksdalsbreen towards the car park with a chance to appreciate Volefossen along the way
Briksdalsbreen_462_07192019 - Returning to the Briksdal Fjellstove with both Volefossen and some neighboring waterfall (possibly from the Melkevoll Glacier) in the background
Briksdalbreen_008_06302005 - During the start of the hike up to Briksdalsbreen, we noticed this partial view of another waterfall in the next drainage to the south of the one for Volefossen as seen from our late June 2005 visit. This photo and the rest of the photos in the gallery came on this day
Briksdalbreen_009_06302005 - Julie on the hike going up to Kleivafossen and Briksdalsbreen in 2005
Briksdalbreen_011_06302005 - We started to see parts of Kleivafossen fairly early in the hike
Briksdalbreen_015_06302005 - Kleivafossen and the bridge passing before it as seen on our first hike in 2005
Briksdalbreen_019_06302005 - Looking directly at Kleivafossen from the bridge with a faint rainbow arcing across it as seen from our 2005 visit
Briksdalbreen_023_06302005 - Faint rainbow in the mist of Kleivafossen as we continued past the bridge.  Notice how much less mist there was in 2005 when this photo was taken versus our 2019 photos, where a photo from this spot would have ensured we'd get drenched
Briksdalbreen_034_06302005 - Looking back down towards Kleivafossen as we were walking up the switchbacking road on our first hike in 2005. On my hike in 2019, the foot trail bypassed all but the first switchback, which had shortened the hike a bit
Briksdalbreen_080_jx_06302005 - Looking down at the switchbacks we had just ascended on our way past Kleivafossen towards Briksdalsbreen during our first visit back in 2005
Briksdalbreen_041_06302005 - Looking up ahead at Briksdalsbreen just as we completed the ascent up the switchbacks beyond Kleivafossen as seen on our first hike here in 2005
Briksdalbreen_046_06302005 - Approaching the attractive Briksdal Glacier with a hastened pace and second wind on our first hike in 2005
Briksdalbreen_053_06302005 - Julie now starting to navigate through boulders before getting up to the terminus of Briksdalsbreen on our first visit in 2005
Briksdalbreen_058_06302005 - Looking across the newly-created lake towards the terminus of Briksdalsbreen
Briksdalbreen_054_jx_06302005 - Some waterfall we saw on the way to the glacier. This turned out to be the Tjøtafossen, which had a lot less flow in this photo taken in 2005 than when I saw it again in 2019
Briksdalbreen_062_06302005 - Looking across the Briksdal Valley towards Tjøtafossen from a more severe angle as I was standing closer to the Briksdal Glacier terminus at this point
Briksdalbreen_068_06302005 - Julie right up at the terminus of Briksdalsbreen during our first visit in 2005
Briksdalbreen_067_06302005 - Looking into the spooky crevace of the glacier terminus of the Briksdal Glacier.  Indeed, we were pretty close to the glacier itself, but that was in 2005, but I doubt we'll ever get this close to any glacier in this manner again
Briksdalbreen_075_jx_06302005 - We noticed there were some people doing a glacier walk atop Briksdalsbreen
Briksdalbreen_074_06302005 - Alas, all good things must come to an end and it was time to head back to the trailhead, but not before getting some unusual views of Volefossen
Briksdalbreen_076_06302005 - Looking at Volefossen from the bridge above Kleivafossen
Briksdalbreen_081_06302005 - Volefossen as we were descending the trail back to the Briksdal Fjellstove on our first hike in late June 2005


The trail to both Kleivafossen and the Briksdal Glacier began from the car park beneath the Briksdal Fjellstove.

This was at the very end of the 22km county road Fv724 south of the town of Olden.

Briksdalsbreen_087_07192019 - The scenic drive through Oldedalen Valley and towards the valley's head at the foot of the Briksdal Valley
The scenic drive through Oldedalen Valley and towards the valley’s head at the foot of the Briksdal Valley

This drive would typically take about a half-hour, but you do have to watch for blind corners since a good chunk of the drive was on single-lane road.

That said, there were enough places to compel you to stop and admire the scenery, and that could easily make this drive take longer.

We have a separate write-up of this drive on our Volefossen page.

As of my latest visit in 2019, the car park had a fee of 50 kr.

Briksdalsbreen_111_07192019 - Looking down at the car park from the Briksdal Fjellstove
Looking down at the car park from the Briksdal Fjellstove

For some geographical context, Olden was 17km (well under 30 minutes drive) south of Stryn, 92km (over 90 minutes drive) south of Geiranger, 103km (over 90 minutes drive) northeast of Førde, 122km (under 2 hours drive) north of Sogndal, and 277km (under 5 hours drive with a ferry crossing) northeast of Bergen.

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Looking downstream against the sun towards Volefossen and a companion waterfall formed from the rapidly melting glacier above it


Video focusing on a top down look of Kleivafossen and some kind of phallic rock at its base


Semi-circular sweep starting with Volefossen then panning over to Tjotafossen before ending off with a more thorough examination of Briksdalsbreen and the new waterfall at its terminus


360 degree sweep from a bluff overlooking Briksdal Valley while also examining all of the interesting features from Volefossen to Tjotafossen to Briksdalsbreen

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Tagged with: olden, oldendalen, briksdal, briksdalbreen, glacier, loen, nordfjord, stryn, sogn og fjordane, norway, waterfall



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Tjotafossen July 3, 2021 12:47 am by Scott Schwartz - I had raved about Tjotafossen in your previous format, but I don't think it appeared anew. I think it is far and away the finest waterfall in the area, dropping 2600 feet from the glacier. I returned to see it 6 more times, and found it to be powerful and delicate at the same time.… ...Read More

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Johnny Cheng

About Johnny Cheng

Johnny Cheng is the founder of the World of Waterfalls and author of the award-winning A Guide to New Zealand Waterfalls. Over the last 2 decades, he has visited thousands of waterfalls in over 40 countries around the world and nearly 40 states in the USA.
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