The Nautgardstind is a mountain in Norway, at 2,258 m above sea level. It is located within the municipality of Lom in Innlandet county and in the Jotunheimen mountain area. It is situated on the absolute eastern flank of Jotunheimen between the Veodalen and Sjodalen Valleys and is the southernmost and highest summit on a rather long ridge containing six more 2,000-m peaks. The summit can be observed along parts of National Route 51 from Båtskaret in the south to Hindsæter in the north. From the south it is an almost perfect cone, and with fresh snow covering the peak, it is a sight admired by many tourists. The summit is easily climbed from Sjodalen valley either from Hindsæter Mountain Lodge, which is the longer route, or from the Russa/Sjoa confluence. Both ways the route will start in low birch forest and gradually enter long talus slopes and plains with many snow patchesin the summer. In the winter, the summit is easily reached, but one should be very wary about the proximity of the northern wall, falling 500 m into Nautgarden. From Hindsæter the rest of the summits in the massif is also reached on a rather long day hike. The views are enormous. There are no peaks in southern and eastern direction reaching higher than 1,850 metres, and you see almost all of the eastern Oppland highlands. Theoretically you can seethe hills north of Oslo, but it might be difficult to discern them. Snøhetta, the Rondanemountain range and all the mountains of Valdres, like Bitihorn can be seen from this summit. To the west many of the summits in Jotunheimen can be admired - most prominent among them from this vantage point - Glittertind, the distant neighbor to the northwest Nautgardstind lies within Jotunheimen National Park, established 1980.
The name
The first element is the name of the valley Nautgarden. A smaller valley, three kilometer east, is called Veslnautgarden 'the small Nautgarden' - and two small sidevalleys of Stornautgarden is named Båsen, the finite form of bås, 'stall'. The reason for these names are probably based on likeness and comparison.
