An avid mountain farmer has provided 200 stairs to Norwegian mountains. Sherpa stairs have become very popular.

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– It is a work of art, says Marit Luktvasslimo (40).

She talks about the new stairs she and the condominiums have received on the Helgeland coast:

• Rødøyløva
• Vegatrappa
• Helgeland stairs

Luktvasslimo lives in Mosjøen and has always been a mountain hiker. The stairs have made it even more tempting to get up to the heights. She uses the Helgeland stairs, which are located right near where she lives, especially often. It has over 3000 steps and is one of the world’s longest stone stairs.

– It’s not often I go up to 800 meters, but I often go halfway up. Sometimes I go early in the morning, other days there is an evening walk with a headlamp or in the afternoon when it is full of people, says Luktvasslimo and adds:

– From Helgelandstrappen we have the best view of Mosjøen, the city I grew up in.

Has walked over 70 of the stairs

Svein Nord agrees with Mosjøværingen that the stairs are works of art. He has walked over 70 of the approximately 200 stairs in Norway’s mountains up to four times to take a closer look at and document the stairs. He has visited almost 150 of them, from Tromsø in the north to Rogaland in the south, with the stairs up to the pulpit and Kjerag in the Lysefjord.

The trips have resulted in the book “On sherpastier – in forests and mountains with people from the east”. It started when he visited his friend, Geirr Vetti, on his farm in Luster. There, the Sherpas, who have built most of Norway’s mountain stairs, had their first summer job.

It started with one employee. Now there are about 45 who come to Norway from the village in Nepal at almost 4000 meters above sea level. They work on half-year contracts with Norwegian collective pay.

– My friend had several people to work on the farm, but it became too difficult for most people to work with the foundations of the farm because it is so steep there. Besides, it was very hard work, says Nord.

It was when he spoke to those who had taken part in Arne Næss’ Mount Everest expedition that it fell into place. They boasted of the Sherpas’ work capacity and abilities with stone, according to Nord. Vetti decided to give it a try.

When others got to see what the first sherpa and then more and more, did on Vetti’s farm, they were quickly asked to do more jobs.

– It is incomprehensible what they achieve. I well remember the time I decided that their work had to be a whole book, says Nord.

He tells about how fascinated he was to follow the Sherpas’ work in Lærdal. It was so captivating that it gave him a high pulse. The job in Lærdal was to restore the old royal road.

With handcuffs and woodpeckers, they pulled large blocks of stone from the Lærdal river, which they transported up the steep slopes where the road was to be repaired. The road grew out of the heavy rocks. I was so excited. The road that lay there had been damaged more and more over many years. Now it came back in place, says Nord.

Good and different training

For Luktvasslimo, there are many advantages to the mountain stairs. They lead the way and give a good and different training than a normal mountain hike, she thinks. But it’s not too demanding for her five- and seven-year-old children, or mother-in-law. In Vegatrappa there are motivating metal figures along the trail.

– It is entertaining and motivating for the children to count how many figures there are all the way to the top. There are also plenty of places to stop and rest in a picnic area along the way. For those who do not get all the way to the top, there are fantastic views and untouched nature along the way, says Luktvasslimo.

Preserve and restore

The untouched nature is especially important for the North. He wants to point out that the job the Sherpas do is to preserve and restore roads we already have. It is only exceptionally stairs in Norwegian mountains are built as a pure tourist attraction.

– What the Sherpas do is needlework. They have no machines and do everything they can to preserve the landscape. Some may say that there will be too many stairs, but we could not have taken care of the mountain passes and the dirt paths in a better way.

He mentions the national parks as good examples.

– There are modest interventions. There are no long stairways, but rather safety measures. One step here and one step there and a small edge wall. This means that the vegetation is preserved because people are led to go where they are going to protect the terrain.

Worse

Jotunheimen and Ulriken are examples of places that would have been worse off without the Sherpas’ help, Nord believes.

– In Jotunheimen there are large bog areas. When people walk so much in the soft areas, there are up to 40 meters wide mud streets. The Sherpas have made dry paths and patched up the whole terrain, says the author.

Ulriken is a valley where all the precipitation in Bergen settles. Before, huge rivers with mud flowed down. What was actually an old path to the mountain pastures has now been restored with two meters wide stairs all the way up, says Nord and adds:

– It may be a bit typical Bergen to say: “You must not move a single stone!”, But the Sherpas were thanked with gifts, cakes, apples from Hardanger and daily compliments. I think Ulriken must be Norway’s busiest staircase now.