Gaustatoppen is the highest mountain in the county

Vestfold og Telemark Vestfold og Telemark (; ) is a county under disestablishment in Norway. The county is the southernmost one of Eastern Norway and consists of two distinct and separate traditional regions: the former counties of Telemark and (most of) Vestfold ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the ...

which lies in the municipality

Tinn Tinn is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Rjukan. The parish of ...

and

Hjartdal Hjartdal is a municipality in Telemark in the county of Vestfold og Telemark in Norway. It is part of the traditional regions of Upper Telemark and Øst-Telemark. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Sauland. The muni ...

. The view from the summit is impressive, as one can see an area of approximately 60,000 km², one sixth of Norway's mainland. The mountain is popular for downhill skiing in winter, and competitions have been held on its slopes. These competitions include the " Norseman triathlon", billed as "the world's most brutal iron-distance triathlon". It starts in Eidfjord and finishes at the top of Gaustatoppen. The summit is accessible on foot in the summer, on a rocky pathway of medium difficulty, although the southern side of the mountain is very dangerous and inaccessible. The wreckage of an airplane crash lies there, as it is too difficult to remove it.

The name

The first element is ''Gausta'', the name of the whole mountain, the last element is the finite form of ''topp'' m 'top, summit'. The name ''Gausta'' is probably a shortened form for ''*Gaustafjell'' (Gausta mountain), because Gausta originally was the name of a farm beneath the mountain. (For the same development see

Dovre Dovre is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Dovre. Other villages in Dovre include Dombås and Hjerkinn. The m ...

.) The

Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

form of the name was maybe ''*Gautstǫð'', the name is then a compound of ''gaut'' f 'flooded place', and ''stǫð'' f 'stead, landing place for boat'. (The farm lies at

Rjukan Rjukan () is a town and the administrative centre of Tinn municipality in Telemark, Norway. It is situated in Vestfjorddalen, between Møsvatn and Lake Tinn, and got its name after Rjukan Falls west of the town. The Tinn municipality council gra ...

river.)

Railway

There is a funicular railway inside the mountain, built for military purposes. This ascends from the base of the mountain almost to the summit. A short railway takes the passengers from the mountain base horizontally to the lower station deep inside the mountain. It was built to access the military radio relay station built at and inside the mountain top. The installation is now a tourist attraction. It was financed mainly by American military grants, and cost one million US dollars to build from 1954 to 1959.Kan havne på private hender
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Gausta skicenter

Gausta skicenter is a merge of two small alpine ski areas (Gaustatoppen Skisenter and Gaustablikk Skisenter) with further expansion of slopes. As of 2019 it has 45 km of slopes and 550 metres height difference. Located 180 km by road from Oslo, it aims to be one of the major ski areas of Norway.

Gallery

File:Rjukan Gaustatoppen.jpg, Gaustatoppen and

File:Peder Balke-Gaustatoppen.jpg, Gaustatoppen painted by

Peder Balke Peder Balke (November 4, 1804 – February 5, 1887) was a Norwegian painter. He is known for portraying the landscape of Norway in a romantic and dramatic manner. Biography Peder Andersen was born on the island of Helgøya, in Hedmark county, N ...

around 1858 File:Gaustatoppen.jpg File:At the summit of Gaustatoppen.jpg, Summit installation File:Gaustatoppen, Telemark 2012.jpg, Gaustatoppen 2012 File:Gaustatoppen Outdoor.jpg, Gaustatoppen view File:Gaustatoppen, Telemark, 360grader.jpg, Gaustatoppen 360 degree photo File:Gaustatoppen (2012.10.06).jpg, Gaustatoppen

References

External links

Rjukan Tourist Information

Norseman Xtreme Triathlon
* Tommy Sørbø
Å vanhellige et hellig fjell

o profane a sacred mountain O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...