Worldwind Tour: Southern Norway: Part II

All of our photos from the Norwegian Fjords:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/103620108216329120374/albums/5902811462979677537

The rest of our stay in Southern Norway was beautiful. We had mostly sunny days, which we fully took advantage of for our day hikes. With so many places to hike in Norway, the challenge is picking the best ones that are within our abilities and time limitations. We ended up hiking about half a dozen medium to long day trails during our 2 weeks in Southern Norway, plus a bunch of shorter ones.

Here are my favorites:

Mount Prest, with panoramic views over Aurlandsfjord

We drove up a small road from the town of Aurland, which, to our surprise, opened up to viewpoints around every turn. Even better, the road took us halfway up the mountain. (A side note - there are so many scenic drives in Norway!)

We started hiking at 600m, and went up to 1300m over a gradual 1.5 hour ascent. The view of the fjord improved with every step! The rest of the mountain scenery was pretty incredible too. The round trip took us about two and a half hours. We love these short and sweet hikes!

On the drive up to the trail head

View from top of Mount Prest

Walking along the trail. It's gorgeous in every direction!

Mount Skala

We started early for this 1600m climb (starting at sea level). We got to the trailhead by 10am, and went up quickly, knowing that it would probably take us a while to get up. We were anticipating at least an eight-hour hike.

The view became amazing about thirty minutes later, as we got above the heavily forested area. The valley and fjord emerged below us. We didn’t stop much on the way up (except for a quick 15 minute lunch break) and made it to the top in 4 hours.

It is a different world up there! Almost everything is covered in snow (we had to trek through a number of snow patches en route), green was no longer visible, and there were glaciers all around us. Amazingly, there’s a lodge at the top that’s open to any hiker who wants to spend the night, with a kitchen, beds and linens, and food. (Norway is big on the honor system. At the lodge, you are expected to leave coins in a jar for taking any of the food.)

We are so glad we did the hike! It was well worth the soreness we endured the next day, and the long four-hour hike down the mountain, which seemed more like forever.

Waterfall about a quarter of the way up Mount Skala

We made it to the top! Behind me is the lodge, which can accommodate over 20 hikers a night.

Crossing an ice field

We climbed 1 vertical mile! At the tip of the fjord, you can see the town where we started.

Ramsdalsaggen Ridge

We were ready for another long day hike - our last one in Southern Norway. The day started with a short bus ride from Andalsnes to the trailhead. We would hike up to a ridge and walk along it back to Andalsnes, where we were based.

The hike up was hard work. In about 2 hours we reached the top of the first ridge. Little did we know that there were about 5 more to go. And the hike down wasn’t any easier. In fact, I preferred the climb up compared to the steep descent, which I had to take very cautiously. The views, though, were incredible the whole way. Hiking on a ridge is just the best (if you’re not afraid of heights) - you get almost 360-degree views constantly.

It had been nine hours of almost non-stop walking by the time we got back to our car. We were exhausted, and treated ourselves to a restaurant recommended by a local. Dave had been looking forward to a beer all day. It turns out that this restaurant is also the town’s general store, gift shop, printing center, and yoga studio. And the only things on the menu were a 100g burger or a 150g burger. We had our burgers and beer, but leaving still a bit hungry, we went to the only place that had dessert - the grocery store. We got a large container (probably 2 quarts?) of ice cream and finished it all. Delicious!