Turtagrø

Historie

Turtagrø is a hotel in the municipality of Luster in Sogn og Fjordane county, Norway, near Hurrungane in Jotunheimen. The hotel has been a central meeting place for mountaineers from the late 1800s.LocationTurtagrø is located near the old mountain route and current road Sognefjellsvegen, north of Hurrungane in Jotunheimen. It can be a starting point for hiking tours to Fannaråken, Skogadalsbøen and the peaks and ridges of Hurrungane, including climbing the Store Skagastølstind.HistoryThe first hotel at Turtagrø was built in 1888 by mountain guide Ola Berge. Later the same year a second hotel was built by Ole Øiene, only 100 metres apart. Turtagrø was a central meeting place for the pioneers of mountaineering in Jotunheimen from the late 1800s, and among the early visitors were William Cecil Slingsby, Howard Priestman and Carl Hall. The two hotels merged in 1911, when Berge bought the other hotel from Øiene. After Berge's death in 1928, his daughter Kari Berge was running the hotel. The road Sognefjellsvegen, which passes Turtagrø, was finished in 1938. In 1938 the climbing association Norsk Tindeklub also built their own cabin in Skagadalen, and these events eventually contributed to a change in Turtagrø's role and the type of visitors.