Folgefonna Sommarskisenter
Norway's summer ski centre on the Folgefonna glacier, where elite racers trained for decades; the operator went bankrupt in 2024 and the lift masts, anchored in the ice itself, are now collapsing into a meltwater lake nobody will take responsibility for.
- Region
- Vestland
- Country
- Norway
- Status
- abandoned
- Year closed
- 2024
- Reason for closure
- The operating company, Visit Fonna AS, went bankrupt in the autumn of 2024, and plans to restart for the 2025 season were abandoned by June that year. The underlying problem is the glacier: the lifts were anchored directly into the ice, which is melting out from under them.
History
The summer ski centre on the Folgefonna glacier, in Ullensvang in Vestland, was for several decades one of the places the world's alpine racing teams went to train through the northern summer - glacier snow within reach of a Norwegian fjord. Its operator, Visit Fonna AS, filed for bankruptcy in the autumn of 2024, and by June 2025 the plans to reopen for that season had been given up. What has happened since makes it one of the starkest entries in this dataset, because the mountain itself is going. The lift masts were anchored not in rock but directly into the glacier ice, and several have already collapsed. Meltwater has formed a lake at the foot of the line that began as a small dam in May and has grown steadily; the glaciologist Jostein Bakke has said it will roughly double in size as the glacier tongue where the lift was anchored splits into two. Meanwhile the bankruptcy estate has formally disclaimed responsibility for the equipment, and neither the former company's board nor the municipality nor anyone else has accepted the job of removing or securing it, so the wreckage is simply being left on the ice. The centre's opening year, its lift inventory and its run names are not documented in accessible sources. Note on the location: the coordinates mark the Folgefonna glacier rather than the exact base of the ski centre.
Lifts
| Name | Type | Manufacturer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unnamed lift | The lifts were anchored directly into the glacier ice. Several masts have collapsed since the closure and a growing meltwater lake is swallowing the lower sections. The number, type and manufacturer of the installations are not documented in accessible sources |
Sources and further reading
More in Norway
Location
60.0229, 6.3353