The traces on the hillside – Storofsen 1789

July 1789 – when the mountainsides gave way in Gudbrandsdalen

Take a walk on the hills around Skåbu, and you will find them: the edges of pits, blocks that do not quite belong in the landscape. Silent scars from a summer when the mountain gave way.

July 1789. After weeks of rain on waterlogged soil, the mountainsides collapsed in one avalanche after another in something that since became known as "Skriusommaren". In Skåbu and Kvikne, barely a farm was left undamaged. The church at Kvikne was filled with earth and had to be rebuilt on safer ground.

More than 60 people lost their lives – Storofsen devastated Gudbrandsdalen

Over 60 people lost their lives in Gudbrandsdalen. Thousands of farm animals and more than 3,000 houses were lost. Contemporary sources tell of people who were so affected by what they had seen that they were never quite themselves again. Many could not bear to stay and moved to other parts of the country. Such a catastrophe naturally affects people and affects the history we come to write.