Knivsflå farm
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Knivsflå farm was abandoned in 1898 when the local council decided that nobody could live there anymore because of the risk of rockslides. The people of Knivsflå then disassembled their houses and moved them down to the village where they settled. However, their descendants continued to mow the Knivsflå meadows for many decades. Older local people still remember the hazards – rocks tumbling down the steep hillsides in summer, followed by the avalanches in winter. Moreover, a false step could easily lead to a fatal fall from a crag. Over a period of one hundred years, seven people lost their lives on this farm. The path leading from the Gomsdal valley to Knivsflå is known as the Midwife’s Route. On Christmas eve in 1892, the Knivsflå farmer’s wife went into labour. The snow was drifting and everybody knew that the local midwife, Kristianne Gausdal, would be unable to help them. She was 77 years old and lived at a considerable and hazardous distance away. Nobody at her age could traverse the icy and steep path in the darkness, where the risk of an avalanche was growing by the minute. So, they were highly surprised when the midwife knocked on their door late at night – just too late to help them deliver the child, who was already born. However, the grateful family warmly welcomed the midwife. She made sure that all was well with mother and child, before heading back to Gomsdal the next morning.