DNT marks anniversary with free stay

DNT Cabin hiking trekking mountains summerDNT’s summer opening at Skogadalsbøen photo: DNT / Sindre Thoresen Lønnes

DNT marks 150th anniversary with free stay for hikers

The Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT) is 150 years-old this year. The anniversary is celebrated by offering free accommodation to trekkers when opening their cabins for the summer season.

 

Den Norske Turistforening (DNT), which was founded in 1868, has cabins and lodges in Jotunheimen, Breheimen, Langsua, Femundsmarka and Alvdal Vestfjell among other places. In 2017, the association can boast of a total of 450,700 guest nights.

When the opening of their summer cabins takes place on Saturday 30th June, a part of the deal is free accommodation.

– The opening is a great opportunity for this year’s first mountain hike, with nice and dry conditions in most places in Norway, says General Secretary in DNT, Nils Øveraas.

The association has seen a rise in the number of guest nights, and this year, Øveraas announces that there may be another record set.

– The number of members is still increasing and DNT builds more cabins. This year we assume an unprecedented 500,000 stay-over’s at our cabins, he says.

About Den Norske Turistforening

Photo: DNT / Sindre Tønnesen Lønes

When 19th century Norwegian banker and philanthropist Thomas Heftye called a meeting at his office, the agenda was “the suitability of founding a trekking association,” as described by poet and writer Aasmund O. Vinje in 1866 in the Dølen newspaper.

Two years after that, Den Norske Turistforening (DNT) – the Norwegian Trekking Association – was founded. DNTs mandate is in part to “acquire means to ease and develop outdoor life here in this country”. 223 members joined at the founding meeting.

Today, the association is Norway’s largest outdoor life organization, with more than 260,000 members in 57 local member organisations across Norway, from Kristiansand in the south to the North Cape in the north.

DNT Oslo og Omegn (“Oslo including surrounding areas”) is the largest member association and is a direct continuation of the original DNT of 1868. In the late eighteen-eighties, trekking associations were founded in principal cities such as Trondheim, Stavanger, Skien, Kristiansand and Drammen.

the Norwegian Trekking Association aims to promote straightforward, active, versatile and environmentally-friendly outdoor activities and to preserve the outdoors and the cultural landscape.

© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today