Geology

The other mountain ridge, Olåsen, derives its name from the Swedish word “ol”, which simply means rock.

Almost all of Töfsingdalen is covered with a continuous sea of boulders. Geologists call this type of terrain a dead-ice area. The massive inland ice sheet has lain immobile here, breaking loose all of the rocks from the mountain and then leaving them helter-skelter on the land when it melted. Some of the boulders are several metres high; others are like large rocks.

The bedrock is made up largely of nutrient-poor sandstone. That is apparent from the dearth of vegetation. But around the Töfsingån river, water has eroded types of rock that have more nutrients, which makes the vegetation here more luxuriant.