Spiterstulen - painted by the famous W.C.Slingsby in 1874/1875.
Owner: Kolbjørn Grindvoll.


Spiterstulen has developed, with the ever-increasing number of mountain-travellers, from an old seter where the cattle from the home farm in the valley were brought to the summer pastures. About 1790 the seter-house was built where Spiterstulen now stands and remains from much earlier times witness that travellers often found food and shelter here.

Little is known of life in Jotunheimen before the tourists began to come about 1820 but here and there stone shelters and animal traps show that people have come here for many centuries to hunt and find pasture for reindeer and cattle.

Reindeer in front of Glittertind (photo: visus, Lom).

It was said that before the Black Death in the 1350's people lived in Visdalen all the year. High up in the valley are the remains of an old shelter Heilstugu which is said to have been built over foundations decreed by King Øystein in 1120 as a refuge for travellers through the mountains: in olden times the main route from Lom to Oslo went up Visdalen past Spiterstulen. It is thought that the small room divided from the larger was a place to keep the bodies of those who fell prey to the weather or to robbers on the way home from market.