Again we were _en route_, still walking in Indian file, and soon reached another long narrow plateau. Over loose rocks, in the dim light, we picked our way as we could for some distance. The Dögurdsmaals Kampen, a steep sharp mountain, rose above us. We at length skirted the glacier lake of the Gjuvbrœen. In this lake we were told by Ole, the Herre Watson, the tourist of tourists, once bathed. Ole evidently considered our countryman one of the best mountaineers he had seen. It must have been a cold plunge; but what is there that an Englishman will not undertake? If we had passed it at mid-day the example may have been followed.
The long reach of stones, whose angular points made it necessary to keep a sharp look-out at every step, were at last exchanged for a gentle slope of tolerably hard level snow. It was a great relief, after the rough pathway of stones just left. A false step on such an irregular causeway involves a broken leg, a grazed shin, or at least a sprained ankle.
At last we reached the edge of a broad but at this point tolerably level glacier, across which we could in the dimness of the night see the dome of the Galdhöpiggen rising beyond. Its summit, a dome of hard frozen snow, rests against a precipice of rocks, above which it rises some feet. From the small nearly flat space, which forms the head of the Galdhöpiggen, the frozen snow immediately slopes off at an angle of from 40 to 50 degrees, and joins the glaciers in the far distance below. It was a wild and desolate scene, as we sat on some broken rocks. Another precipice rose to our right, as if to test supremacy with the Galdhöpiggen in this region of eternal snow. After some slight refreshment we roped ourselves together. No great difficulty presented itself as we crossed the glacier to the rocks which formed an arrête to the snow dome of the Galdhöpiggen. Once or twice Noah sank up to his middle, but the crevasses were narrow and easily crossed. Very easy work to one who had crossed the Glacier des Bossons.
Then commenced the ascent of the steep arrête of rocks, but even these presented no great difficulty to a fair average mountaineer. Then came a rise of frozen snow at the junction of the dome with the rocks. There was an awkward crevasse to cross. Ole carefully tested the snow, and it was soon overcome. We were now on the frozen slope of the snow dome. On this, as we had no nails in our thick fishing-boots, with the utmost difficulty we could keep our legs. With the aid of our Alpine stock the summit was at length reached at five minutes past four o’clock. This is the highest mountain in Norway, 8300 feet above sea level. When we were on the rocks of the arrête we saw a glorious sunrise over the _Lauvhöen_ Fjeld. The morning light enabled us to see a vast wilderness of dark rocky peaks rising from a setting of eternal snow. No sign of human habitation, no signs of animal life--silence reigned around us. Reindeer’s bones were lying on the rocks near the dome.