Qualla: Blåmannsisen

Blåmannsisen: Introduction

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frankemann, CC BY-SA 4.0. In 2001 the ice let go. On the northern flank of Blåmannsisen sits a lake called Øvre Messingmalmvatn, held in place not by rock but by the glacier itself, and that August the seal failed. Around 40 million cubic metres of water came out of the mountain at once. Several kilometres away, the level of Sisovatnet rose two and a half metres in thirty-six hours. It has happened again in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014 and 2016 — always in August or September, always with somewhere between eleven and thirty-five million cubic metres behind it. Icelandic has the word for this: jökulhlaup, a glacier burst. Blåmannsisen is one of the few places on the European mainland that needs it regularly.

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Image: Frankemann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Blåmannsisen: The Blue Man

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frankemann, CC BY-SA 4.0. The glacier is named for a nunatak — a peak that stands clear of the ice — which from a distance reads blue-black against all that white, and which older eyes saw as a figure walking with a pack on its back. Its apparent size changed through the season as the snow rose and fell a...

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Image: Frankemann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Blåmannsisen: Fifth Largest, and Getting Smaller

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frankemann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Blåmannsisen is the fifth-largest glacier on the Norwegian mainland, straddling the boundary between Fauske and Sørfold municipalities just two kilometres west of the Swedish border. Its high point, the Blue Man himself, stands at 1,560 metres; the lowest ice reaches down to abou...

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Image: Frankemann | CC BY-SA 4.0

Blåmannsisen: Three Ways Down

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit SiberianJay, CC BY-SA 4.0. Three outlet glaciers run off the icecap, and each behaves differently. To the east, the largest of them descends toward the lake Leirvatnet and calves into it, breaking off ice at the snout. To the west, another drops steeply and is torn open by the gradient. To the north, a sma...

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Image: SiberianJay | CC BY-SA 4.0

Blåmannsisen: Water With a Job

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Frankemann, CC BY-SA 4.0. Almost none of this meltwater is allowed to find its own way to the sea. Tunnels take roughly a quarter of Blåmannsisen's runoff into Sisovatnet to feed the Siso power station; the rest drains into the Norwegian networks operated by Elkem and Saltens Kraftsamband, or eastward acr...

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Image: Frankemann | CC BY-SA 4.0