Is Preikestolen going to fall into the fjord?
What the crack is
A joint in the rock, roughly half a metre across and several metres deep, running over the plateau. It is not a secret and it is not hidden: people walk over it, step across it, and take photographs of each other straddling it. Joints like this are normal in this granite and they are what the ice exploited when the cliff was formed, about 10,000 years ago, as described on what makes it special.
What the measurements say
Bolts have been set across the gap since around 1930, which means Preikestolen has one of the longer observation records of any single crack in the country. In May 2017 the Geological Survey of Norway measured it 2 to 3 millimetres wider than before, and that was the first detected movement in 22 years. The Survey’s own framing was notably unexcited: they said they were not panicking, and that they assumed the rock had not moved recently. A few millimetres after two decades of nothing is a measurement, not an event.
The current assessment is that there is no foreseeable safety risk and that the plateau is not expected to fall in anyone’s lifetime. I will say that plainly and I will not go further than it. Nobody who works on this rock promises that it is permanent, because nothing on a coastline is, and the honest sentence is that it will go eventually and not while any of us are here to see it.
Why the story keeps circulating
Because “crack found in famous cliff” is a better headline than “geologists measure three millimetres and shrug”. The 2017 measurement went round the world in a week and the Survey’s calm follow-up did not. If you arrived here having read that Preikestolen is about to collapse, that is where it came from.
What I would actually worry about instead
The things that hurt people on this mountain are wet granite, tired legs on the descent, wind at an unfenced edge and going up in winter without the kit. All of those are on any given day; the crack is on a geological clock. The honest ranking of risks is on how safe it is, with the detail on injuries and the missing fence.
Look for the bolts rather than the crack. They are small, they are old, and they are the physical trace of somebody having quietly checked on this rock for the better part of a century. That does more for my confidence than any press release.
What there is to book
Not the trail. Nobody sells a ticket to Preikestolen and nobody can, so anything you pay for is something else: the ride out of Stavanger, the guide who walks it with you, or the boat that shows you the cliff from the water. Which of the three you actually need is set out on the bookings page and in the comparison.
Frequently asked questions
Is the crack in Preikestolen dangerous?
The geological assessment is that there is no foreseeable safety risk. The gap has been monitored with bolts since around 1930.
How much has it moved?
The Geological Survey of Norway measured 2 to 3 millimetres of widening in May 2017, the first detected movement in 22 years.
Will the plateau collapse?
Not in anyone's lifetime on the current assessment. No responsible source calls it permanent either.