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VIDEO: Europe's longest via ferrata bridge

Richard Orange
Richard Orange - [email protected]
VIDEO: Europe's longest via ferrata bridge
Johanne Heggheim on Via Ferrata bridge - Jan Heggheim

Tourists will have to battle vertigo and adrenaline overload when they cross a new hanging foot bridge which opens on August 24 in Loen, at the end of the Nordfjord.

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The bridge, which hangs a dizzying 160 metres above ground, will carry walkers who complete the arduous two-hour climb up across a 118 metre gorge between two peaks. 
 
Johanna Heggheim, the first woman to cross the bridge earlier this month, said it was an experience she would not forget. 
 
"When you you're about to walk out on it, you feel something in your stomach which tells you you shouldn't do it," Heggheim, who works as a receptionist at Loen's Hotell Alexandra, told The Local. "But I guess that's why you get the kick and the adrenaline. It was scary the first time, but I really liked it." 
 
The bridge was built over three weeks this summer to complete the climbing route funded by the hotel. 
 
"The Austrians who built the bridge claims it is Europe's longest via ferrata bridge," Richard Grov, Hotell Alexandra's director told VG. "The vertigo out there is brutal, almost unreal." 
 
Heggheim said that the walk was beautiful as well as nerve-wracking. 
 
"If you turn left, you see the mountain, if you turn right you see the valley, the Nordfjord gorge and the glacier. It's very, very beautiful. Stunning actually," she said. 
 
Below is a video, shot before the bridge was built, of some of the views climbers can see on the route. 
 

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