Qualla: Lukttinden

Lukttinden: Introduction

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit No machine-readable author provided. Massey25 assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain. In modern Norwegian, lukt means smell. That makes Lukttinden read, to anyone who learned the language in school, as something close to Stink Peak - a name no mountain deserves and this one never earned. The word is a fossil. It came into Norwegian from Sami by way of the lake at the mountain's foot: Luktvatnet, in Southern Sami Loektejaevrie, built from loekti, an inlet, and jaevrie, a lake. The lake with many inlets. Only the ending is Norwegian, from tind, a peak. Properly unpacked, the 1,343-metre summit standing between Mo i Rana and Mosjoen is the peak above the many-inletted water.

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Image: No machine-readable author provided. Massey25 assumed (based on copyright claims). | Public domain

Lukttinden: The Map Underneath the Map

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sandivas, CC BY-SA 3.0. Names like this are scattered across inner Helgeland, and they are easy to drive past. Vefsn Municipality, which owns this summit, carries the Southern Sami name Vaapste. Rossvatnet, some thirty-odd kilometres to the southeast, is Reevhtse. The Norwegian on the road signs is the ...

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Image: Sandivas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lukttinden: The Mountain Without a Glacier

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Sandivas, CC BY-SA 3.0. East of Lukttinden the ground turns serious. The Okstindan range carries Oksskolten, which at 1,916 metres is the highest mountain in North Norway, and it carries Okstindbreen, a glacier substantial enough to require rope, crampons and someone who knows how to use both. Lukttinde...

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Image: Sandivas | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lukttinden: Thirteen Hundred Metres of Air

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Kroelleboelle, CC BY-SA 3.0. West of the summit the land falls away toward Ommervatnet, a lake of 5.47 square kilometres lying at just 42 metres above sea level. The vertical gap between that water and the top of Lukttinden runs to roughly 1,300 metres. Standing at the edge of it, the number stops being abst...

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Image: Kroelleboelle | CC BY-SA 3.0

Lukttinden: The Road at Its Feet

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Øyvind Rask, CC BY-SA 4.0. The best-known photograph of Lukttinden was taken from the old Korgfjell road, near the point where the E6 leaves Luktvatnet. Which is to say: from beside a parked car, by someone who stopped. That is how most people meet this mountain, and there is nothing wrong with it. Helgela...

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Image: Øyvind Rask | CC BY-SA 4.0