Mud pillars in Uldalen disappear in Sel municipality in Gudbrandsdalen – NRK Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio

They are called “Kvitskruprestan” and have been there for hundreds of years. They got their name because people imagined them as tall, thin priests standing on the steep edge of the mountain.

The special landscape formation at Uldalen in the municipality of Sel is a very rare sight in Northern Europe.

Apart from a few places around Gudbrandsdalen, you have to go to the Alps to find your mate.

But something happened in the last ten or fifteen years. Almost all “shows” have fallen flat.

– Now there’s a little foot down here, says Espen Ruston at the State Nature Laboratory.

“Weather and Wind” is exhausting

Soil columns come from long-term erosion of moraine masses.

Within the masses are stones that functioned as “caps” or “umbrellas”. They have protection from rain, thus forming pillars.

As the water washes the soil down the slope, the clay beneath the stone becomes stiffer – more capable of supporting the stone.

– You can see many stones inside the ridge here. New ones are likely to be installed. But not as big as the ones here, Ruston says.

Lars Erikstad, senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Natural Research (NINA), believes Uldal’s growth is expected. What is special about this case is that the mud pillars stand on a loose mass.

– There is a process that created the “achievers” and that process will gradually destroy them too.

Erikstad explains that similar patterns are found in solid rock and are then permanent.

Normally a slope like the one we’re talking about here would have new pillars, but in this case the slope was more or less eroded away, he says.

Thus, we cannot expect any new, big pillars.

Important Truka nature type

The white paper lists performance “Norwegian Red List of Natural Species”. as Important tank. The city was protected in 1977.

– It is not the mud pillars that are protected as a natural monument, but the continuous erosion process, says Espen Rustan, who oversees the area.

There is a traffic barrier at the edge of the race and mud pillars.

But there is a path to town. When you arrive, there are stairs and platforms to get a better view of the area.

Encourage them to take advantage of the opportunity

Rust cannot tell when the last pillar of earth will disappear. Or how it should go with respect to the new earth pillars.

But you should already plan a visit during the holidays.

– I recommend making a trip now this summer to see the last, little pillar of earth left here, down here, says Ruston.

Lars Erikstad supports the nature supervisor – the last pillar is very thin.

– So encouragement from you too, to get up there before you finally fall?

– Yes, I’ll do it anyway. I haven’t been there for a couple of years and then there were more than one left.