This is about my big fat Norwegian hiking vacation. I learned from Oddmund that Swedes and Danes have a nickname for Norwegians, "Norsk fjell-ape" or "Norwegian mountain ape," and I am definitely turning into one. As I mentioned in a previous post, it is common to take longer vacations and hike from one cabin to the next on an extended trip. So that is precisely what we did. We still started relatively small, three nights in cabins, but the hikes in between were very aggressive. We chose a round trip path so that we wouldn't be in the same cabin, and chose a part of Norway that had beautiful scenery and wasn't right in our backyard.
We chose to hike in Hardangervidda, a large plateau in the middle of the country that is on average 3,300 feet above sea level, and has peaks going up to 5,646 feet above sea level. In the middle of this plateau there is a very large glacier and there are cabins and hiking trails all throughout the plateau. Side note: on the 17th of May, Norway's national day, hundreds of patriotic and adventurous Norwegians climb onto the glacier to celebrate the country:
Anyway, we decided to spend four days and hike around the glacier. And here is how it went:
We spent the evening before deciding what we needed to bring, packing, rearranging and redistributing weight, and repacking. We ended up with two substantial backpacks. Oddmund's weighed about 40 pounds and mine was about 30. At first, that seems okay, but four days later, you start to debate whether you really needed a toothbrush, a book to read, extra clothes, food, water, etc. I only joke about the water, all of the streams and rivers throughout the hike had the cleanest, most delicious water I've tasted. So, with our backpacks ready, map and compass set out, sandwiches made, and alarm set, we went to sleep. We woke up early to take the train at 7.30 that goes from Bergen to Oslo.
We walked with our backpacks out our front door and five minutes to the tram station by our house, which took us directly to the train station. Here is a tired, excited, nervous Sandra:
The train ride took two and a half hours and dropped us off at Finse, a tiny town located at 4,000 feet above sea level. The town is only accessible by this train (or walking) and has 15 buildings. It is a big attraction for outdoors-lovers (skiing, hiking, biking) and the population increases dramatically in the winter with ski bunnies. We stood there and watched the train leave, knowing we would see it four days and a lot of miles on foot later.
Finse
The Finse hotel is the largest building in the town, and is also connected to the building Finse 1222, the headquarters for a very famous trip in Norway in which you take the train, pick up a bike in Finse, and bike on a beautiful path down all 4,000 feet to Flam, which is on a fjord, and can from there take a boat back to Bergen.
Walking away from the booming metropolis of Finse and into the great expanse of nothingness that makes up the rest of the Hardangervidda.
As we left Finse, we could see the glacier in front of us. We would walk to the right, west, and go counterclockwise around the glacier to finish walking northeast to get back to Finse. To clarify, here is a map of our trip. The red lines are the actual path that we walked, marked the whole way with red T's painted on stones. I put a star on Finse, and a dot on each of the three cabins in which we stayed. The arrows are just to show the direction, and the path on the bottom gets cut off a little. Sorry! :)
The ominous glacier in front of us as we start the journey:
Warning: throughout the rest of the blog, you may get tired of seeing pictures of/from bridges. Let me just say that you can not be more tired than I was over walking over these bridges by the end of the trip. I never got less nervous throughout the trip, and even on the last (40th?) I still asked Oddmund "you promise this is safe??".
Needless to say, there were a lot of streams throughout the trip, which meant one of two things. 1- walking very carefully across streams of varying sizes, from trickling stream to a river I would consider fording if I were playing Oregon Trail (generation Y reference). 2- walking even more carefully across bridges that looked about as secure as some very well done toothpick bridges. These are called summer bridges because they are only there in the summer. The thick cables stay there all year, and as summer approaches, trail staff goes out to lay the wooden planks on the bridge. They are not stable, they move in the wind, they mostly have warning signs saying "one person at a time" and they can be over very very scary whitewater. That being said, they are actually very safe.
Here is Oddmund on the first:
The trip also involved a good amount of walking across snow, at which point we were very thankful for the people who had walked before us and made the trail.
Is it too late to walk back to Finse and stay at the hotel for the three nights? I think I can still see it...
An early view:
This stream I had no problem walking across. But just wait.
More snow, as this is the part of the trip where we are closest to the glacier.
A few hours into the trip:
This is the glacier, but it is hard to tell it apart from the sky:
At one of the highest points of the trip, around 4,900 feet above sea level.
Holding on for dear life.
Patiently waiting his turn to cross the narrow bridge.
Looking down from the bridge.
Some views from the end of the first day. This part of the plateau had the most dramatic changes in elevation. No power lines, roads, civilization, for as far as the eye can see.
Loving it
Found the first cabin! It was called Rembesdalseter and is located on a dammed lake and a stream, with views of a large waterfall and the glacier.
Very happy. The cabin is in site and this bridge is not nearly as scary.
The "tongue" of the glacier and a waterfall from the front porch of the cabin.
When we woke up in the morning the fog had set in.
It gave an eery feeling to the first hour of the hike.
Another bridge, this one over glacier water, which is grey and less clear, and not drinkable.
Heating water for our breakfast of oatmeal and instant coffee with the glacier in the background.
Breakfast!
Doing the dishes.
Okay, this was another issue I had with the hike. I am not complaining, I loved it all, but this was a bit strange and got very, very boring by the fourth day. This was the "path". There would be one big stone with a red T on one side of this sea of huge rocks, and then one big stone with a red T on the other side. They basically say, "I don't know... you figure it out."
One of many streams we used to refill water bottles.
Looking back to the water on which the cabin was located, and the long way we had come.
This one was pretty.
Lunch spot on the second day. We ate a lot of "turmat" or " hike food." There is a wide selection of different meals (chili con carne, pasta bolognese, cod casserole, chicken curry) that are dehydrated. To eat them, you open the bag, break up all the food and loosen it up. Then you pour boiling water up to a certain point, stir stir stir, making sure to get all the corners, and close it for five minutes. When you open the bag you have a warm, rehydrated, surprisingly tasty meal. They have about 600-700 calories each, which is really important. After lunch this day we tried some fishing but had no success.
A view back towards the glacier, which is located on top of these mountains.
Oddmund and the ever important map. I had some very interesting lessons in orienteering, learning your position and direction by topography, bodies of water, and the compass.
Here is a beautiful part of the path that leads directly through the water.
Glacier in the distance.
Approaching our second cabin there was a steep decline towards this huge body of water, which made for some spectacular views.
Self-timer does it again!
Okay, the worst of all the bridges due to the amount of water passing underneath.
Yikes...
Where you would end up if the bridge failed you. Not bad?
Trying to show some perspective. Waterfall on the left, viking on the right.
Second cabin! Arriving right before sunset, around 8.30pm.
Watching the sunset
Still going
Next day and back on the path! This was one of the larger, albeit shallow and slow, rivers we crossed on rocks.
Doing the dishes again after another breakfast. As you can see by my hat (thanks Ty!) it was colder the last two days.
Following the leader. There were not many pictures from this day. The hike was the shortest (5 hours) and the weather was the worst, it rained for a good portion of the hike. But that was all perfect because we had the most exciting cabin to look forward to! As I mentioned in my previous post about cabins, some are staffed and some are unstaffed. We were headed to our only staffed cabin, where we had showers, an electric generator, and a three course meal with beer and wine waiting for us! What rain?
I'm at the second table in the orange shirt, enjoying my ground elk patties with potato, carrot, caramelized onions, brown sauce, and lingonberries way too much to turn around for the camera. This is half of the dining room, the other half was also full. They do two dinner seatings every night. The couple who runs this cabin has been there for many, many years, and it is one of the oldest cabins in Norway, the oldest in Hardangervidda, built in 1879.
Our room number. All the signs were painted this way and the cabin was beautiful. It feels as though you have stepped through a time machine when the rooms look like this and they turn the generator off for the evening and the whole "hotel" is lit by candlelight. Not as exciting when you have to use the restroom in the middle of the night and walk to the next building, but very charming.
Leaving the cabin the next day. Full from a wonderful breakfast buffet, showered, well-rested, and ready for the hike back to Finse!
The cabin in the distance.
Another example of the painfully boring rock paths that made up a lot of the last day's hike.
Some cliffs upon which a sheep got stuck. Two brave Norwegians climbed up the mountain in an effort to rescue the sheep, which was bleeting loudly enough to be heard for kilometers! They were unsuccessful as the sheep was very stubborn. But, the sheep got up from the ledge on its own as we were standing and talking to the brave Norwegians. I was told that if the sheep are really truly stuck, that their shepards go and shoot them down to end their misery.
The glacier came back into view, this time from the east, as we were heading back to Finse.
Finse! We made it back after a ten hour hike the last day with just enough time to enjoy a celebratory beer in the Finse hotel before catching the train back to Bergen.
So close!
The other large building in Finse. This is the public cabin which is part of the same organization as the cabins we stayed in. The Finse hotel is private.
Back to the Finse hotel!
The beautiful dining room of the hotel.
Waiting for the train
Leaving Finse, very satisfied, in beautiful weather.
Very happy to be on the train!
So, we made it back to Bergen safely, albeit exhausted, which I hope you are not after this long blog post! :)
Barcelona update coming soon!
