DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE OUR NATURE
Every year around summer the red cross sees a massive (2 – 4 times) increase in rescue calls.
Most of these are for tourists who think it will be a nice and easy x hr hike. So they don’t wear proper shoes, don’t bring water, don’t dress for rain and generally are unprepared and need rescuing.
The fact of the matter is that ortho the Norwegian landscape is beautiful, It can throw you a curveball at a moment’s notice, and it has no mercy.
It can go from sunny and warm to a mini snow storm in 10 min in the off-season, or it can just start absolutely pouring rain.
Bring proper hiking shoes, rain gear, or at least have a rain poncho with you, food and water, have a basic first-aid kit with you. but most important of all, **research your hike before you set out**.
F.eks.Prekistolen (pullpit rock), every year we see dozens of tourists in flip-flops and shorts with cameras, being helped off the mountain.
Yes it’s an easy hike with a well well-established route, doesn’t mean it’s the same as a walk to the nearest store.
Or trolltunga, it’s usually a 8hr hike with 400M of elevation if you take the “easy” route, and people show up with flip-flops and a camera.
If it starts raining in the middle of this hike the least you want is a rain poncho.
Edit: [https://english.dnt.no/the-norwegian-mountain-code/](https://english.dnt.no/the-norwegian-mountain-code/)
TLDR: Norway is beautiful, but tourists keep underestimating our nature and need to be rescued, don’t let that be you.
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Heck, I’ve personally see people start up to Prekestolen in heels pushing a baby stroller.
Being an American who has lived in Norway for over 2 decades I can confirm everything OP wrote.
Trails in Norway would be considered goat paths in USA. They are not graded and graveled paths! In Norway it is expected that you plan and take care of yourself. If you go for a hike without water, food, correct clothing Norwegians will think you are stupid and guess what, you are.
My personal favourites from the “Instagram“ hikes:
At Prekistolen I saw a south Asian family in full winter ski gear in the middle of July. They had the insulated trousers with the bibs and puffer jackets tied around their waist. They all had 60+ litre backpacks on too. We passed them at the first set of Sherpa stairs on the way, many hours later after hiking far past prekestolen cooking lunch and then hiked Ming back we passed them again. They hadn’t even made it halfway.
Trolltunga, also in the summer. An American woman wearing jogging gear with no bag or food or water was stopping people asking to have some water. She was also asking where the water came from. Of course everyone told her it was from the stream (perfectly clean) she refused and went on to the next person. This was only about 2km past the top car park.
I have a friend who witnessed a small family of two very unprepared adults, two toddlers and a baby (being carried) who were encouraged by the Red Cross to turn back on their way to Kjerag. When my friends were packing away, the wife was arguing with her people at the car park demanding the money back, apparently the entire situation was quite hilarious, involving quotes like “how were we supposed to know it wasn’t suitable for toddlers?”.
Same thing happens in Iceland too. While the major tourist stuff is usually paved and easy (the Golden Circle stuff) once you get out into the Highlands or the Westfjords it can get dicey if you are not prepared. I saw people in flip flops trudging up to the Bird Cliff. While not a difficult hike I wouldn’t want to do it without good shoes. And it seems that every year someone ignores the warning signs about the “sneaker waves” and drowns.
Same thing in the Hocking Hills, Ohio. I grew up there and saw a few dozen deaths. All tourists thinking that gravity stopped working because THEY were on vacation. I live in Norway now and, yeah, tourists are still stupid.
The number of stupid tourists you see going “hiking” here in Norway is just mindboggling. At some point we really should stop rescuing them without a hefty fine.
Hiked Gaustatoppen with the family two weeks ago. Can confirm: unpredictable weather to be expected. We checked the weather predictions every day for 4 days prior to the hike. Then also checked the weather prediction at the car before heading up. No rain expected, so we left rain gear in car. When we got to the top, we experienced and electrical storm coming (heard “the bees” – buzzing noises, I was getting shocked occasionally when touching boulders near the peak, and our hair stood on end — needless to say, we immediately turned back down to the kiosk below the peak). It then absolutely poured rain during a massive thunderstorm with hail included. So thankful we had made it to the kiosk and we were able to take the cool train through the mountain down.
Do not underestimate how fickle the weather in the Norwegian mountains can be — even in the middle of summer!
People who don’t live as far north as we do probably forget how much impact altitude has on climate when you’re this far north.
In Western Norway, at low altitudes, we have a comfortable oceanic climate similar to the climate in the British Isles. As soon as you reach any significant altitude however, the climate changes to sub-arctic and then to tundra much quicker than it will at similar altitudes further south. It’s why the tree line is much lower in Norway than in southern Europe.
Does Norway have a through hike like The Camino de Santiago or more like the big ones in USA?
As a Lofoten local, I feel the pain. The fog can capture the entire mountain in 10 minutes
I often wonder what makes people do such things and be so unprepared.
And then I remember to be grateful for being raised by a swiss mother. Crazy what people do if they’re not used to mountains.
It’s the same here in New Hampshire USA. Everyday this past year EMS has rescued 1 or more people from the mountains here.
And 95% of them are from out of state and are similarly unprepared for what they are undertaking.
I hiked prekestolen. Wore leggings, tennis shoes, a t shirt, and a rain coat. Actually got so hot hiking I had to take off the coat.
Amazing experience tho.
And if you are at Dovre, don’t try and pet the musk oxen.
Viking country isn’t for everyone.
This is the same everywhere (in countries with mountains). In Switzerland people die nearly on a weekly basis because they fall off a mountain cliff somewhere.
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I don’t understand why Trolltunga became such an Instagram spot. Yes, it’s absolutely beautiful. But the hike up is not for the casual tourist. I did the hike in my 20s, being in good shape, and I sat on the shower floor with a thousand yard stare afterwards.
That is true, but also applies to any trip to any mountains, I think.
Where I live (lofoten) every year or two a tourist dies Cus of stuff like this, be safe folks
Regarding first aid kits, can the first aid kits made for hiking (like this https://www.apotek1.no/produkter/miniapotek-apotek1-1stk-902673p?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_viWBhD8ARIsAH1mCd5PDY7Dx9btxrA4hb7AUPhsyYJj_P6exD4PsPdvB8y2a1RoMe-NVewaAvINEALw_wcB ) really help with anything meaningful? I guess a “gnagsårplaster” can be helpful, but most of the stuff in the first aid kit only help with minor inconveniences. If you break a leg or experience serious head trauma, the first aid kit seems useless. Please let me know if I got it wrong, as I have never actually used a first aid kit.
Hikes in other countries I have lived are usually controlled. So you will find handrails on difficult parts, good poster maps at every fork explaining how you can take an easier or shorter path.
The unaltered nature of Norway is something a lot of people have little or no experience with.
Absolutely fkn love Norway’s raw rugged natural beauty. But wth is it with guys there shooting wolves? Is it status symbol thing or what? Had a paramedic guy in a bar in Bryggen proudly brag about ‘blowing one in half’ 😶 The numbers are so low there as it is. I just don’t get it. The last wolf in Britain was killed in the 700’s & they’re persecuted pretty much everywhere else too on the continent. You’d think they’d embrace the virtue of these magnificent creatures living in pure wilderness.
The same kind of precautions should be taken, for any fishing tourist heading out at sea as well!
I’ve spent a lot of my time off, in the Frøya area, and I regularly spot tourists heading out to fish, when the forecasts scream “today is not a day to head out to sea”.
And this is foreigners, but also Norwegians, thinking they are seafarers after spending several summers in the Oslo fjord area or whatever.
I know that when the sea fog hits, you can go from 20 degrees and sunshine, to 2 meter visibility and less than 10 degrees in a few minutes. Your GPS won’t help you as much as you think, in thick fog the accuracy can quickly drop to 30m, and with a few metres visibility, you have no idea where the next rock is, and the last thing you want is to be adrift in the fog.
I also see people go ambitiously far out at sea in small boats, the worst horror story I heard was 4 obese Germans and two crates of beer, in a 15ft boat, with a 9.9hp outboard motor heading out, returning 18 hours later, reporting excitedly that they had seen the oil rigs, out in Haltenbanken.
For real, if you go out anything more than a few km from the mainland along the whole coastline, every person onboard should have a life belt, you sit in the boat at all times (only exception is the person at the wheel), you should wear or pack raincoats and make sure to have loads of warm clothes available. You should also make sure to both have food and water with you in case you get technical difficulties or otherwise stuck, set up a plan and let somewhere know where you intend to go, and any boat should as I see it have a waterproof VHF radio. Your phone quickly gets useless out at sea. Also! Oars, doesn’t matter if you have a small reserve engine, bring fucking oars! That reserve engine of yours has probably not been ran in a good while, so if your boat is less than a tonne, you can without too much trouble row it enough to get to the nearest piece of land and anchor up, while you wait for help.
Just as with the mountains, the sea up here can be incredibly treacherous, and lots of resources are being wasted on rescuing tourists with no respect for the sea, or in many cases it’s resources wasted on recovering their ice cold corpses. You don’t last long swimming in 10-degree water before hypothermia kicks in.
I grew up in Alaska and live in Norway now. This is HUGE. The difference between a day hike in a popular, well-maintained area when you have decent shoes, enough water and a granola bar or two or a sandwich, proper layers, and you’re staying on the well-maintained parts vs. traipsing out there like you’re Christopher fucking McCandless and wandering off the trail is literally life and death. Attitude and feeling connected to nature isn’t going to hack it.
One of the episodes of Survivorman in which Les Stroud was most afraid for his life was in Norway. The conditions didn’t seem very extreme, he had mild winter conditions, started in a car and was never far from civilization, but chilly and wet can quickly become a dangerous combination…