Industry News
For decades, Norway’s Folgefonna glacier — known simply as “Fonna” — stood as one of the last places in Europe where winter never really ended. National teams trained there through the summer, young skiers took their first turns on glacier snow, and terrain park riders chased progression under the summer sun. Then, almost suddenly, it was over. After several years of financial struggles, the summer-only ski resort declared bankruptcy and despite efforts to resurrect it for 2025 summer skiing, fell into disarray. By last September the t-bar servicing the glacier ski area had collapsed and is now being scrapped.
Now, a new plan is emerging — not on the former ski area of the glacier itself, but just below it. When Svein Olav Espeland, former operations manager from 2021-2024, looks up at Folgefonna today, he doesn’t see a viable ski area anymore. He sees a landscape that has fundamentally changed. “The glacier itself has since 1996 melted continuously,” he said. “Today the glacier is 300 meters (1,000 feet) from the original lift entrance, and there is now a large lake between the glacier and the original entrance. You would need a boat to access it in summer.”
For Espeland, that realization marked a turning point. “I knew there was no future for ski activity on the glacier,” he said. “So I started looking for alternatives.” That alternative sits just below the former ski area. At roughly 1,100 meters (3,600 feet) in elevation, a wind-loaded zone beneath the glacier consistently collects snow pushed down from above. Unlike the exposed ice fields, this terrain is more sheltered, less volatile, and—critically—still holds enough snow to build something new. Espeland’s revival plan is modest to start.
A 150-by-100-meter terrain park, served by a 90-meter conveyor belt, is the first step — what Espeland calls “step zero.” He has purchased the conveyor and is now waiting for regulatory approval from the local community. “It’s not long,” he said of the conveyor. “But I believe it will work fine for my test plan.” There are no grand promises — yet. No glacier access, no T-bar, no sprawling summer ski operation. Just a small, controlled park on stable ground, designed to see if Fonna can live again in a different form. The long-term vision, however, is more ambitious.
Step one would expand lift access using additional conveyors and ski ropes. Step two, if approvals and funding follow, could introduce a 600-meter chairlift and open up steeper terrain for alpine skiing alongside the park. The project — proposed as “Folgefonna Aktivitetspark” — is now in the hands of local authorities. According to a recent update, the county council has raised no objections, leaving the final decision to the municipality.
The old infrastructure is already gone. The glacier’s T-bar collapsed last summer and has since been scrapped. With the conveyor purchased, all Espeland needs is the go ahead and he will start creating the terrain park to revitalize the Fonna Glacier area.
For Espeland the revival is deeply personal. He has worked on the glacier — on and off — since 1996, eventually becoming operations manager until the resort’s collapse in 2024. He has watched in despair as the ice receded year after year, and with it, a piece of Norwegian ski culture. “My motivation is to continue the legacy of Folgefonna and Summerski,” he said. “It has been part of the local culture since the mid-1980s.” When Espeland is not on the glacier, he is a local dairy farmer in Jondal — our interview is conducted in between milking cows. Fonna is located in the the Folgefonna National Park, about a half-hour drive from Jondal. The drive up to the glacier from lake level leads from Jondal at the Hardangerfjord along the glacier road past valleys and lakes into the National Park. Jondal can be reached in about two hours from Bergen airport.
If approved, the terrain park could open as soon as this summer — a small strip of snow beneath a melting glacier, carrying forward a legacy that refuses to disappear entirely. We keep everything crossed that Espeland can bring his vision to live and bring new life to this spectacular area.
