As we hadn’t had enough of a workout or a sense of danger the day before, we decided to double down and also sign up for a longer, more challenging hike: Kjeragbolten!
It began with a long bus ride (no ferries this time, sadly) with a pit stop at a nice tourist center with goat pens, a waterwheel, and more grass covered roofs behind it. We perused the store and it’s aisles of fancy soaps, scented candles and locally made jams, and the back room which was built into the rock and showcased taxidermy’d specimens of all the local fauna – from badgers to bears and mountain cats!
Then it was back on the bus for the second half of the drive, and eventually we noticed it getting whiter… and whiter… and whiter outside. We had been climbing into what felt like the tundra, and were surrounded by valleys of snow, ice, and lakes (many with icebergs), when our driver confirmed it: we had just reached the highest point on the drive, and were driving on a one lane road at ~900m up!
Despite several near screeching halts to play chicken with on-coming traffic (note: the bus always wins, even if that means the car has to reverse back up the road to let us through!) we made it to the start of the hike at Øygardsstøl, located at 640 m.o.h. (meters above sealevel) and would be climbing several up and downs, peaking at 1020 m.o.h.
The hike supposedly takes ~5 hours roundtrip, and our bus schedule allowed for just over 6 hours, so we dove right into the hike. The first challenge was realizing that with lots of snow around, there was quite a bit of melting going on, of which the trail was often included in the path of the runoff. With that, we quickly realized that a “challenging hike” again meant fairly serious business. We were often climbing with one or two hands up the steep, slippery rock, that is, when we weren’t white-knuckling the safety chain that had been added in places of serious slope. Though there were steps and paver stones at some points, the majority of the hike was fairly choose-your-own-adventure(-but-follow-the-cairns) up huge slopes of rock, many of which were at grades of 30+%, if not 40+%!
After scrambling and sliding up the first hill, we were treated to a view of the next valley, which was simply gorgeous – a stream babbled through the grassy valley that was surrounding by the stark contrast of rock and snow on all sides. Some campers had the same feeling, and we saw them breaking camp after spending the previous night in this slice of Norwegian wonderland.
The other thing we saw as we gazed across the valley was that we had another steep climb ahead of us (literally) up and out of the valley. We dug deep and made it happen, and were rewarded with more crazy views as we neared the top of the fjord mountains that surrounded us.
The trail transitioned to a more even and moderate upward slope at this point, which meant we could catch our breaths and see where the path would wind ahead. This was quite nice, until we realized there were several long pieces of trail where we would have to slosh through slushy snow, as the train was still quite covered. Undeterred, we powered on and simply accepted the fact that though our mesh, barefoot running trail shoes were handy for gripping the rock earlier, the low profile guaranteed that we’d be hiking for the rest of the day in soggy shoes. All the more reason to keep on keepin’ on!
Roughly 3 km of undulating hills of rock and snow later, and we had reached our destination: Kjeragbolten! There’s a chance you have seen pictures of this one before – it’s the picture of a large boulder wedged between two cliff sides with massive, plunging drops to nothingness on all four sides. Truly a beautiful sight!
Now for the real kicker: it’s a big deal, and surprisingly common for people to climb out onto this rock. In fact, it’s known that this is the goal for most hikers, but again, there’s no rangers or rope to try and prevent a ~900 meter plunge if someone slips.
Grant, not a fan of heights, but up for adventure, got in line (yes, there was a line to do this!) but the delay only gave him more time to accidently look over the edge a couple times and ponder the potential for his untimely demise… In short, his subconscious made a serious round of compelling arguments, and in the end, he decided it wasn’t his cup of tea (You’re welcome, Mom & Dad!).
Heart absolutely racing, he walked back to Jess who was eager to get in line herself and couldn’t wait to get that “toe tingling” feeling again (seriously folks, we really need to get her checked out about this). Grant assumed the photo position, and after a minute or two of anxious waiting, Jess popped out onto the rock with a huge smile on her face! Grant almost passed out, but managed to snap a few shots of this daredevil extraordinaire!
After hopping back to the (relative) safety of the rock ridge next to Kjeragbolten, we realized we were truly lucky: 1) We were both alive; and 2) It was starting to rain, so was time to head back. We wolfed down a quick lunch of the usual variety – salami, cheese, bread, and Norwegian chocolate – and hit the path back. The rain was pretty persistent, so we hustled as best we could back to the start. We were making great time, until we hit the downslopes that we had climbed up earlier. Cold, soggy, and starting to tire, we managed to shimmy, climb, slide, scoot, and scuttle down the slopes. Big takeaway: going up hill on wet, sheer rock is infinitely easier than going back down!
We made it down in one piece, and even had time to spare, which was spent in the lodge where we snacked on waffles and celebratory beers on a successful day, all while admiring the view (the lodge was built right up on the side of the cliff overlooking the fjord!) and warming back up.
The rest of the trip and day was uneventful. We bussed home, thawed out with hot showers, and hunkered down in the apartment as the rain continued. Though we’d usually be bummed by lousy weather, this time it provided the perfect excuse to opt for some relaxation over more exploring!
-G & J
2 fisted beer drinking! Just by the photos on blog I have total beer consumption currently at 57.4 liters.