The Fish Ladder

The salmon ladder – see wild salmon live inside the mountain

Kvåsfossen has always stopped the salmon. With a drop of 36 meters, the waterfall was a barrier the wild salmon could not pass – the spawning grounds further up the Lygna river were out of reach. In 2014, the solution was completed: a salmon ladder running through a tunnel in the mountain, in an arc around the waterfall itself. The ladder is 220 meters long, one of the longest of its kind in Norway. It has 46 pools – small basins where the salmon rest between jumps – and a total rise of about 20 meters.

What makes The Norwegian Wild Salmon Centre unique

Inside the mountain, large glass windows surround the pool. Here, you can stand dry and sheltered and watch the wild salmon swim past, just centimeters away, on their way to their spawning grounds. There are few places in the world where you can get this close to wild salmon in their own element. The salmon ladder is not just something to look at. It is an active measure to give the salmon access to a stretch of the river they previously could not reach – and a concrete example of how we can accommodate wild salmon.

When can you see the salmon?

The first salmon arrive as early as May, and throughout the summer they work their way up the ladder – with a bit of luck, you will see them through the glass windows around the pool. Wild salmon cannot be ordered on demand – and that is part of the thrill. If you stand by the glass windows on a summer day, you never know what might appear in the next moment. To increase your chances even further, late summer and autumn are the prime times, as more and more salmon head toward their spawning grounds. Regardless of when you visit, the trip into the mountain is an experience in itself.