The knife-edge above two impossibly blue lakes is Norway's most photographed day hike, and it earns every one of its warnings.
I based myself at the Gjendesheim lodge on the shore of Lake Gjende and caught the first boat across to Memurubu, which is how almost everyone tackles Besseggen — the ridge is far harder walked the other direction. From Memurubu the trail climbs fast through scree to the saddle below Besshø, and for a long, exposed stretch you're balanced on a ridge with Lake Bessvatnet dropping turquoise on one side and Gjende a darker blue nearly four hundred metres below on the other.
The scramble sections aren't technical, but they're airy enough that I stopped noticing the cold and started noticing my hands on the rock instead. Cloud rolls in off the Jotunheimen peaks with little warning, and I met a Norwegian guide who turns back parties the moment visibility drops below the next cairn.
Do it as a long day from Gjendesheim rather than trying to add huts — the DNT cabins nearby are better used before or after for the wider Jotunheimen network, with Glitterheim and Memurubu both good bookends. Go in August; the snow patches that linger into July make the ridge crossing considerably more serious.
