Besshø or Besshøe is a

mountain A mountain is an elevated portion of the Earth's crust, generally with steep sides that show significant exposed bedrock. Although definitions vary, a mountain may differ from a plateau in having a limited summit area, and is usually higher t ...

Vågå Municipality Vågå () is a List of municipalities of Norway, municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Traditional districts of Norway, traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of ...

Innlandet Innlandet is a Counties of Norway, county in Norway. It was created on 1 January 2020 with the merger of the old counties of Oppland and Hedmark (Jevnaker Municipality and Lunner Municipality were transferred to the neighboring county of Viken ( ...

county,

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. The tall mountain is located in the

Jotunheimen Jotunheimen (; "the home of the Jötunn") is a mountainous area of roughly in southern Norway and is part of the long range known as the Scandinavian Mountains. The 29 highest mountains in Norway are all located in the Jotunheimen mountains, in ...

mountains within

Jotunheimen National Park Jotunheimen National Park (, ) is a national park in Norway, recognized as one of the country's premier hiking and fishing regions. The national park covers and is part of the larger area Jotunheimen. More than 250 peaks rise above an elevation ...

. The mountain sits about southwest of the village of

Vågåmo Vågåmo is the administrative centre of Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located along the Otta River, at the eastern end of the lake Vågåvatn in the Ottadalen valley. The Norwegian National Road 15 passes thr ...

and about northwest of the village of

Beitostølen Beitostølen is a village in Øystre Slidre Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The village is located at an elevation of about above mean sea level on the southern edge of the Valdresflye mountain plateau. The villages of Skammestein an ...

. The mountain is surrounded by several other notable mountains including

Kollhøin Kollhøin is a mountain in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The tall mountain is located in the Jotunheimen mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The mountain sits about southwest of the village of Vågåmo and about nort ...

to the north,

Veslfjellet Veslfjellet is a mountain in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The tall mountain is located in the Jotunheimen mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The mountain sits about southwest of the village of Vågåmo and about no ...

and

Besseggen Besseggen or Besseggi is a mountain ridge in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The tall mountain ridge is located in the Jotunheimen mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The mountain sits about southwest of the village o ...

to the southeast,

Bukkehåmåren Bukkehåmåren is a mountain in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The tall mountain is located in the Jotunheimen mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The mountain sits about southwest of the village of Vågåmo and about ...

and

Eggi Eggi or Eggen is a mountain in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The tall mountain is located in the Jotunheimen mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The mountain sits about southwest of the village of Vågåmo and about ...

to the south, and

Gloptinden Gloptinden is a mountain in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The tall mountain is located in the Jotunheimen mountains within Jotunheimen National Park. The mountain sits about southwest of the village of Vågåmo and about nor ...

to the west. The mountain lies right above the lake

Bessvatnet Bessvatnet is a glacial lake in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. The lake is located in the Jotunheimen mountain range and also inside the Jotunheimen National Park. The lake lies just east of the mountain Besshø. The lake Bessv ...

, along the

hiking trail. On the mountain's north-eastern side is a small

cirque glacier {{No footnotes, date=October 2024 A cirque glacier is formed in a cirque, a bowl-shaped depression on the side of or near mountains. Snow and ice accumulation in corries often occurs as the result of avalanching from higher surrounding slopes. If ...

, and it is surrounded by a large ice-cored

moraine A moraine is any accumulation of unconsolidated debris (regolith and Rock (geology), rock), sometimes referred to as glacial till, that occurs in both currently and formerly glaciated regions, and that has been previously carried along by a gla ...

, a relatively rare feature in Norway. From Besseggen there is a nice view over the lakes

Gjende Gjende or Gjendin is a lake in Vågå Municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the Jotunheimen mountain range and also inside Jotunheimen National Park. The proglacial lake shows typical characteristics of glacial formation, bei ...

and Bessvatnet. Gjende is about 400 m lower than Bessvatnet. While Bessvatnet has a blue colour common to lakes, Gjende has a green colour due to glacier runoff depositing clay into the lake (

rock flour Rock flour, or glacial flour, consists of fine-grained, silt-sized particles of rock, generated by mechanical grinding of bedrock by glacial erosion or by artificial grinding to a similar size. Because the material is very small, it becomes suspe ...

Toponymy

The mountain is named after the lake

, the last element is the finite form of ''hø'' for "large and round mountain".

References

Jotunheimen Vågå Mountains of Innlandet {{Innlandet-mountain-stub

Toponymy

See also

References