Taking a Toll
Excerpt from a personal blog written during a 2017 European backpacking trip.
We first arrived in Bergen and had an hour-and-a-half drive to our Airbnb in Norheimsund. On our way to the Airbnb we came upon rows of waterfalls gushing in slender threads of white down the mountains, at the foot of which were a handful of white and red cottages and a harbour. Sooner we would find our own red cottage just a few miles later where we would be sleeping! Exhausted from our flight and traveling for 2 weeks in general, we were surprised with 6 warm and fluffy pancakes sitting on our bed in Norheimsund. Our host, Olav, made the first Norwegian impression on us, and he set the bar high by welcoming us with sweet pancake deliciousness! Too bad every night in Norway wasn’t going to be this cozy…
After waking up to glorious sunshine the morning after we arrived in Norway, we packed up the car and continued our road trip. We drove through tunnels cutting the length of incredibly lush hills and passed herds of sheep serenely trotting through the hilly pastures that were everywhere we looked. Although this trip is to celebrate our accomplishments of graduation and our big move to California, we most definitely are still watching our budget and therefore made a grocery stop to be our source of food for the next 6 days. Odda, Norway was our next stop, where we would soon hike the picture-perfect trail, Trolltunga.
With the advice from a couple of locals, we discovered the Buarbreen hike, which took us to the edge of Folgefonna glacier. It was a good warm-up for us, being a 4-hour return hike, 650 meters up! We started the hike around 3 pm, which felt a bit odd since at home we would worry about darkness on the way down. Not Norway! Each day is filled with 20 hours of daylight making it difficult to go to bed in the evenings when it looked like 5 pm at midnight!
Hiking in a country as beautiful as Norway made it seem as if I was in a lost paradise, a sort of heaven that I never knew about. Neither of us had ever seen a glacier before and we got more and more starstruck as we got closer. We hiked, climbed, and trekked through places where we were completely in nature. Moments where the only thing we could hear was the trickling waterfalls and our breath as we tried to catch it. My personal favorite was filling our bottles directly from the stream – to my amazement every time how crystal clear the water was...EVERY TIME.
This was Trolltunga. Not least like the photo we had seen. It was real, it was in front of our eyes, it was more beautiful, astonishing, and mesmerizing than any picture we had seen. Our jaws dropped in awe at the beauty dwarfing us. It was a stunning place blessed with tranquility to lull our travel-worn senses from sleeping in the car the night before. Dwarfed by the mountains and fjords, I stood there and wondered about what the first person who discovered Trolltunga must have felt when they arrived in this scenic spot and transformed it into a world-known hiking adventure. Did their passion for nature make them glad that they had chanced upon this spectacular piece of Norwegian landscape? Or were they intimidated by the mountains and fjords that stood guard around the valley like ancient sentinels of grandeur?
What I described is my butterflies and rainbow vision of Trolltunga. What more often ran through my head were thoughts of pain and exhaustion.
Due to snow and harsh winter conditions, it is usually only possible to hike Trolltunga between mid-June and mid-September. Sam and I were fortunate to have perfect weather the day we hiked and wonderful clear views of the dramatic troll’s tongue. The Trolltunga round-trip trek takes most individuals about 8-10 hours, so it can be done in a day. That is what we chose to conquer. However, people often take a tent and split the hike over a couple of days. We began our hike at 6 am, with fog flooding through trees like a heavy blanket around its coldest user. Thus, making it difficult to see at times. The 22 km round trip began with an exhaustingly steep 1 km uphill climb that is even more unbearable on the way down. Incline after incline, I felt the end of the trail getting farther and farther away than even home.
After a final push across glacial potholes, we finally arrived at the troll’s tongue around 10:30 am. Due to the blinding fog, we did not catch any glimpses of Trolltunga until we arrived at the top. Yes, this may have made it more exciting when we got there, but it sure was torture wondering when the top was really THE top. The first sight was indescribable. Particularly when we looked down at the 700-meter drop beneath us.