Cultural Path Bordvassvegen -| Lom National Park Village

The Ottadalen valley is very dry. Thanks to an old and very complicated field watering system, agriculture has been and still is possible in the district. On a tour along the Bordvassvegen canal you will learn a lot about the irrigation system.

Cultural Path Bordvassvegen 

Bordvassvegen is a cultural path where you follow an old waterway and get to know with history and traditions around irrigation culture in Lom. The trip goes on the sunny side of the gentle slopes and is a nice walk even if the weather is not at its best.

The cultural path has an information board behind the The Norwegian Mountain Center. The route to Bordvassvegen is tagged with red tags. You can follow the route description for the route to Lomseggen (yellow tagging) until Lomseggen and Bordvassvegen trails split. Then you can follow the red tagging in order to go along Bordvassvegen. You can follow the water from Bordvassvegen down to Nordgard Aukrust (bio-dynamic farm since 1986), with romantic and useful gardens.

Bordvassvegen goes through Andvord farm and there can be cattle grazing in fenced pastures in summer. If you want to avoid grazing animals follow the yellow tagging above the farm until you see the first forest road. Go down the road to the left and you will see the Bordvassvegen again only a few meters down the hill.

The dry valley - history:
The Ottadalen valley is very dry. Thanks to an old and very complicated field watering system, agriculture has been and still is possible in the district. On a tour along the Bordvassvegen canal you will learn a lot about the irrigation system.

Annual precipitation in Lom and Skjåk is at many places less than 300 mm. Subsistence agriculture is impossible without the artificial irrigation system, unique in Europe. When seasonal snow melting is over, there is little water in the brooks and rivers.

By constructing irrigation channels from the mountains – from the edge of a glacier or a manmade dam where the water from the melting ice could be stored – it was possible to supply the acres and fields in the bottom of the valley with life-giving water.

In the community of Lom 68 channels and dams are registered; the shortest is 300 m, the longest 20 kms. The total length of the channels in Lom is 230 kms, in the neighbouring community Skjåk 300 kms are registered.

Most of the channels supply hamlets, just a few only a single farm.