Finse

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Finse is an area in the Ulvik municipality of Hordaland. The railway station at Finse on the Bergensbanen at 1,222m is the highest station on the entire Norwegian railway system. Since there are no roads to Finse, the railway provides the sole means of transportation to and from Finse. During summer, however, it is possible to walk or cycle to Finse. Across the railway line from the station is housed the railway navvy museum, which has exhibits on the construction of the railway line and two decommissioned snow-clearing engines which you are free to explore. The area also has a hotel (Finse 1222), a hostel (Finsehytta, DNT) and a number of private cabins.

Finse in winter.

During the winter, Finse is popular for cross-country skiing, sail skiing (due to its location on the edge of a frozen lake), expedition training and Red Cross training. The ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole trained here, and outside the hotel there is a monument to those that died. There is one small drag-lift which allows you to downhill ski on one slope back into town.

During the summer the focus switches to mountain cycling, walking and glacier walking on the adjacent 'blue ice' Hardangerjøkulen glacier.

In March 1979 Finse was the place in which George Lucas chose to shoot the ice planet Hoth in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, because its chilling landscape matched the fiction.