Hi everyone,

I’m planning to do a winter hike to Trolltunga in January with a company that’s based in Odda. The current plan is to fly to Bergen, rent a car at the airport and drive to Odda. The car would be a manual 4WD. The rental company describes the tyres as “winter tyres in line with local regulations” – should I assume that these are most likely to be unstudded Nordic winter tyres or should I make further enquiries (are studded tyres a thing for rental cars)? Also, is it compulsory to carry chains in winter in this region? If not compulsory – should I carry them anyway just in case there is an icy hill to climb in the unstudded tyres? I am not familiar with the terrain but I have been reading threads re: narrow roads in Norway and concerns re: weather conditions/visibility/ reduced daylight hours. I’m tending towards if conditions are not great on the day, I’d pick the northern route (more tunnels, only one ferry) but if it’s a bright sunny day and ice unlikely (although never say never), I’d try the southern route. Would that be a reasonable approach for a driver of 25years’ experience including black ice and skiing areas in winter but no previous driving experience in Scandinavia and no previous experience driving with studded tyres?

I’ve set aside 8 hours just for doing the drive to avoid being in a rush, both for the drive there and back. If conditions are fantastic throughout, would you recommend doing one route there and the other route back?

by fiddlesticksnz

1 comment

  1. Chains are unnecessary. Studded or studless tires still both serve you fine. Studded will be better on pure ice surfaces, but otherwise have similar performance to studless.

    Just take things a bit slower than usual. Be wary of turns, especially in uphill and downhill sections. If the road looks like it’s banking to one side in a turn, slow down a bit more in advance.

    Let local drivers pass you whenever possible if you feel like you’re not able to match their tempo.

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