Ustaoset is a village in Hol municipality,

Buskerud Buskerud () is a former county and a current electoral district in Norway, bordering Akershus, Oslo, Oppland, Sogn og Fjordane, Hordaland, Telemark and Vestfold. The region extends from the Oslofjord and Drammensfjorden in the southeast to Ha ...

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 ...

. It is located on

Norwegian National Road 7 Norwegian National Road 7 ( no, Riksvei 7, ) is a national road in Norway which runs from the town of Hønefoss in Viken county to the village of Granvin in Vestland county. The route is long and runs east–west through Viken and Vestland c ...

(''Riksvei 7''). Ustaoset is situated above sea level and is the finish for the cross country ski event Skarverennet. Ustaoset first came to prominence in 1909 with the opening of the

Bergen Line The Bergen Line or the Bergen Railway ( no, Bergensbanen or nn, Bergensbana), is a long scenic standard gauge railway line between Bergen and Hønefoss, Norway. The name is often applied for the entire route from Bergen via Drammen to Osl ...

(''Bergensbanen''). The rail line between

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula o ...

provides year-round access to this high mountain valley. Ustaoset has a rail station on the Bergen Line running between

Geilo is a centre in the municipality of Hol in Viken county, Norway. Geilo is primarily a ski resort town, with around 2,500 inhabitants. It is situated in the valley of Hallingdal, 250 km from Oslo and 260 km from Bergen. The Bergen Line ...

and

Finse Finse is a mountain village area on the shore of the lake Finsevatnet in Ulvik municipality in Vestland county, Norway. The village is centered on Finse Station, a railway station on the Bergen Line. The village sits at an elevation of above s ...

, as well as a hotel and mountain resort cabins. Families from both cities built cabins, some now over one hundred years old, from which they could ski in the winters and hike in the summers. Reaching the summit of

Folarskardnuten Folarskardnuten is the highest point on Hallingskarvet, and is also the highest point in the county Viken of Norway. The mountain lies within Hallingskarvet National Park. See also *List of highest points of Norwegian counties This is a list ...

, at the highest point in the region, on skis or on foot is a notable achievement. Because of Norway's strict controls over building and land use, new Ustaoset cabins are difficult if not impossible to build making the rare cabin that comes on the market much in demand. The mountain resort cabins at Ustaoset have a key role in the murder mystery unfolding in the Norwegian detective thriller ''

The Leopard ''The Leopard'' ( it, Il Gattopardo ) is a novel by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa that chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the ''Risorgimento''. Published posthumously in 1958 by Feltrinelli, after two rejections by the ...

'' by the Norwegian author

Jo Nesbø Jo Nesbø (; born Jon Nesbø; 29 March 1960) is a Norwegian writer, musician, economist, and former football player and reporter. More than 3 million copies of his novels had been sold in Norway as of March 2014; his work has been translated ...

. Some episodes in the book feature police detectives from cosmopolitan

coming to conduct investigations in the far more primal mountain environment of Ustaoset.

Ustaoset in winter

References

Related reading