Vinnufallet

Vinnufallet is easily seen and admired from alongside Highway 70 in Sunndalen. The base of the falls is visible just under 6.5km east of the junction of Highways 62 and 70 in Sunndalsøra, but the falls can be seen along Highway 70 for several kilometers in either direction (assuming there are no low clouds).With a total drop of 845 meters (2,772 feet) Vinnufallet is among the tallest waterfalls we have recorded on the Eurasian continent and is likely one of the ten tallest waterfalls on the planet. Originating in the Vinnu Glacier which lies nestled high above the town of Sunndalsøra, the stream Vinnu chutes out of a narrow crevice at the top of the valley wall, plunging a sheer 155 meters (510 feet) or so before impacting on a narrow shelf, from which it continues veiling down the side of the valley for another 575 meters (1,885 feet). Finally after a second short pause in a series of cascades set among boulders, the stream makes a final tumble down an additional cascade, dropping 92 meters (300 feet) further. Making the falls more visually impactful is the fact that as the stream cascades further down the mountainside the breadth of the falls is continuously increasing, reaching an apex of over 150 meters in breadth before the falls encounter the tree line of the valley. Previously our estimates placed Vinnufallet at a height of 865 meters, which was about 20 meters too generous, which had it pegged as the tallest falls in Norway and on the Eurasian continent. After re-evaluating the topographic maps of the area, it's more likely that neighboring Skorgefossen is actually the tallest falls in the country, beating out Vinnufallet by about 30 meters in height. However after a team of canyoneers from Italy made a complete descent of Switzerland's Mattenbachfälle and found it to exceed 900 meters in height, the title of tallest in Europe or Eurasia has been passed on to that fall instead.We had previously listed this entry as "Vinnufossen", however we're told that the proper name in the local vernacular is actually Vinnufallet (Vinnufossen is used incorrectly in some sources however). The english translation of "fossen" and "fallet" hold generally the same meaning, but "fallet" is typically applied to waterfalls which drop in a sheer or nearly sheer fall - in this case referring to the uppermost part of the falls specifically.