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SWE/NOR Jotunheimen Besseggen Ridge August 2017 (WD11)

Legendary Besseggen Ridge Hike in Jotunheimen National Park 8/31/17 –

Length: 15.72 km (9.77 miles) (note: Online research shows much less 13-14 km)
Time: 5 hrs 50 minutes (note: we were pretty conditioned by this point and we were on a tear!!! – online research shows 6-7 hrs + rest time)
Weather: Coldest hike of the trip, weather hovered around 55-65F

General Logistics:
We arrived to the Gjendebaten parking lot approximately 45 minutes early. Parking is not free (cost 120kr per day).
Ferry cost is one way: Adult 150kr. They have about 15 spots reserved for people who show up on the day of the hike. Get here early! It was a zoo late in August. A group of approximately 200 kids showed up in additional to the normal hikers.

Park here:

The ferry left sharply at 8:01am, and took approximately 20 minutes before we hit our stop half way down the lake. We exited off the boat and turned on our olympic speed-walking switch and raced for the start of the trail in order to get in front of the 200 kids. Mind you, we already amassed approximately 50 miles of hiking on our legs so we were very conditioned by this point. The start of the hike was similar to others, beginning with stair climbing through alpine terrain with streams and muddy ground. After a few kilometers we started to see the terrain level off. As we continued we arrived at a mountain wall where we climbed on all fours straight up. Daunting and equally mentally challenging if you have a fear of heights. Little known fact, I have some height anxiety issues but was able to overcome most of this by focusing on the challenge in front me. It was not easy but if I can do it anyone can do it.

This hike was the coldest hike that we faced in our week long adventure in Norway. So come with layers and windproof gear so you can stay warm. As we continued up the terrain we saw green colored signs that showed elevation and distance back to the parking lot. The trail was marked with rock pyramids and red paint. It’s a Norwegian tradition to take a rock and throw it on the pile to form a pyramid (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairn).

The views in front were equally as stunning as behind us. About 2 hours into the hike, I noticed I put on my socks on inside out. I said, “no problem, let’s hike on!”

Once we got through the challenging spiderman crawling climb portion, the terrain leveled off at the ridgeline. We followed the trail for a few more kilometers until we started to descent. Typically the way down is more challenging on the knees, but this was nothing compared to the Romsdalseggen ridge hike – that was just brutal!!

Enjoy the views and pictures!

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SWE/NOR Romsdalseggen Ridge Hike August 2017 (WD10)

Romsdalseggen Ridge Hike 8/30/17 –

To summarize this hike in a few words: Intense, amazing views, challenging & rewarding.

We parked the car next to the City Civic Center in Andalsnes (free for once!)

We walked approximately 5-7 minutes to the bus stop, which was near the big obelisk looking building. We arrived 30 minutes early.
The bus departs every morning at 9:30am from June 30 until September 30.
Extra departure at 12:00, on Fridays and Saturdays, from July 1st to August 12th.

Here’s a map of the bus station location:

Bus Ticket Information (150NOK per person)
http://visitandalsnes.com/en/bus-to-the-romsdalseggen-hike/

Let’s get to the hike!
The bus drops us off at 62.536390, 7.826350

This hike was far from easy. We started the climb up immediately, just like every Norwegian hike! Due to the lower starting elevation, the trail was muddy as we walked along streams for a solid 30-45 minutes. We shed down a few layers because we heated up instantly. At around 2.5km there was a drastic change in temperature and we put layers back on. Once we reached higher grounds we met up with a mountain wall where started a steep ascent. The climb up this mountain wall was grueling with waist-high steps. We put our hiking poles away since we needed to use both hands to climb the rock. Each step was closer to reaching our goal: the legendary ridge-line views.

Along the climb up to the ridgeline there were three chain assisted points and two very narrow paths along the walk at the top. Once we got past those points it was mostly cruise control where we enjoyed the scenery down in the valley. After the ridgeline hike we started the descent. Once we hit 550 meters we reached Romsdalstrappa, which are stone steps build by Sherpas from Nepal. https://www.fjordnorway.com/top-attractions/romsdalseggen/romsdalstrappa

Once we got our famous selfie, the descent to Andalsnes continued with a very steep and root-filled hike. It’s was a knee burner so we took it slow and watched each step carefully

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SWE/NOR Geirangerfjord Tourist Recovery Day (WD9)

Geirangerfjord Rest Day 8/29/17 –

Today we turned into tourists for the day. We drove where every bus in Norway was traveling to, which is known as the magical and legendary Geirangerfjord! Hairpin turns around every corner and buses so wide they take up the entire road. Man alive was it beautiful. We were lucky to arrive on a day where no cruise ships unloaded thousands of people into a small town of 500 people.

Check out the picture below from google maps. The roads were only wide enough to fit two cards side by side, so when we passed a bus we had to stop in our tracks to let it through!

The money the town spends is very much catered to tourism.

Points of interest during the drive:

Bring warm clothes, it’s super windy and cold up at the high road (Entrance fee 130NOK)

Standard lookout point (free)

Lodging for the night: Cute little Barrel Cabins! (warning – 2wd cars may not have fun on their hills, so be very cautious here)

 

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SWE/NOR Hiking Middagsfjellet Oyenibba August 2017 (WD8)

Middagsfjellet Oyenibba Hike 8/28/17  –

Trail was marked by the color white, which was not consistent with the typical red for Norway.

This hike is supposed to be one of the most unknown but beautiful hikes that can be found in Norway. One of the hosts of the house/Hotel’s we stayed at gave the recommendation. Originally the plan was to hike Mount Hornelen, but since the weather forecast was for heavy rain and intense winds we changed the plan.

This was what we called a rest day hike, and logged only 3 miles. The entire journey to this hike was rocky from the start. Finding the trail head was very difficult. We drove down two streets off the main road and could not find the starting point to the trail. We knocked on a few doors to ask the locals how to find the trail.  A nice farmer helped guide us to the path through his farm land. With his permission, we parked next to his garage where he was working on some tractor machinery. We grabbed our Osprey hiking backpacks with 6 liters of water and walked through his sheep pasture. The trail quickly escalated from flat ground to 400 M up a steep, rocky, and tree root filled trail. A very interesting thing about hiking on Norway trails was the number of old and new cabins along the way. During this hike there was no shortage of that. Weather: the rain started out with a light sprinkle, then turned to a constant drizzle as we progressed up the trail. Every step we took followed with a slip, the trail started to turn to mud with slippery rocks. After 1.5 hours in we made the call to turn around and head back.  During our walk back we spent close to half an hour eating wild blueberries. I’d never seen so many patches in my life! As we hiked back and reached the farm, we met up with the farmer again. We were able to communicate with each other and eventually find out he had some family in Minnesota. The common theme while talking with the locals was about family immigrating to Washington and Minnesota. He also told us we could pick fruit off his apple, pear, and plum trees on our way out.