![]() These summer farms only date back to the 17 th century. The legend claimed that there had been an ancient settlement at Neto, older than the summer farms standing there today. Intriguingly, there is an old legend about Neto, first noted in the 18 th century. What was going on? The old Neto legend and the discovery We had expected it to go down to the summer farms. To our surprise, however, once we got a bit further downhill, the path headed west in the slope above the summer farms. ![]() It became difficult to follow, as juniper covered the area. Then the trail started to descend towards the Neto summer farms. People and their animals had left tell-tale traces – many parallel paths carved into the terrain. As we approached the Neto summer farms, the signs of heavy traffic grew increasingly clear. We followed the trail into a valley and further west. The pass is marked with an arrow (Photo: Espen Finstad, ) Reidar Marstein by the tracks leading to the Lendbreen pass. The cairns and stone markers helped us in the same way as they helped our fellow Viking travelers a thousand years ago. We got the feeling that we were walking in the footsteps of earlier travelers without prior knowledge of the trail. By following the cairns, we got safely down the steep mountain side even without knowing the route beforehand. This was especially the case concerning difficult passages. Cairns and other stone markers clearly marked this section. The trail started by going down on the south side of the Lendbreen pass. There was only one way to find out: We followed the Lendbreen trail west from the pass to see where it headed. Who were the people traveling through the pass and where were they heading? Were they locals traveling to and from their summer farms and pastures, or long-distance travelers going west to the fjords? A large cairn at the Lendbreen pass, showing the way west (Photo: Johan Wildhagen/Palookaville). ![]() There were no records of the pass in local history. The discovery of the trail crossing the Lendbreen ice patch was a surprise for us. Where did the trail lead from Lendbreen pass? Elling Utvik Wammer holding the skull of an unlucky packhorse that did not make it across the Lendbreen ice (photo: Espen Finstad, ). Radiocarbon dates of the finds tell us that travelers used the trail through the pass most intensively around 1000 years ago, during the Viking Age (read more here (Secrets of the Ice) and here (National Geographic)). We found remains of sleds, dead animals, clothing, household items and other eye-popping finds melting out of the ice in the pass. The lost mountain pass at Lendbreen is the greatest discovery of the Secrets of the Ice program. So we did just that and the trail led us to an unbelievable discovery – a lost Viking settlement! The lost mountain pass Who were the travelers going through this high mountain pass and where were they going? To gain an answer, we realised that we would have to walk in the footsteps of the Vikings – follow the Lendbeen trail and see where it would take us. The discovery made headlines around the world, but it also raised questions. The lost Viking mountain pass that melted out of the Lendbreen ice patch was a fantastic and baffling discovery.
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