If there is anything we learned about Norway, it's that you have to earn every beautiful view. Every mountaintop view point is earned one step at a time. We have done many hikes around the world but this fact never felt as certain as it did with Trolltunga.
When Heerali and I planned for this hike, we knew it was going to be a challenge. 17.4miles (28km) round trip is no small feat. This would be the longest hiking adventure we have done to date. So we though it best to break the adventure up into 2 days. Which meant, we would need to camp out in the middle of the Norwegian wilderness. By no means are we backcountry hikers with the kind of equipment to campout over night and provision the necessary things. So we decided to plan our adventure with a Norwegian hiking company called Trolltunga Active. Through them we booked a 2 day hike to Trolltunga and back with a group and a guide. To help with safety and providing the necessary resources to camp overnight in the Norwegian mountains.
There are other hiking companies, but we decided to go with Trolltunga Active for many reasons. They provide an experienced guide leading a smaller group in comparison to the other companies. Your guide will make dinner that night and breakfast the next morning at the camp site, and they will take photos for you once you reach Trolltunga.
Day 1 of the trip, we meet at the Trolltunga Active meetup/office site around 10am, with plans to depart at 10:30am.
Once you arrive to the parking lot 2, there is a parking fee that needs to be paid, and this not included in the price of the hike, so this is an additional cost. Because ours was an overnight hike, we needed to pay for a 2 day parking pass, and this parking pass is not cheap, 700,00 NOK which is roughly $66.00 USD (Sept 2022).
Our guide made sure we have the appropriate equipment/clothing/provisions for the journey. If they feel you are lacking in any way, they have rental gear available. Before you start the hike our guide asked us what we wanted to eat for dinner. We had the option for vegetarian, vegan, chicken, beef, or reindeer. These meal kits are prepped at basecamp and placed in a vacuum sealed bag. You are responsible for carrying this meal in your own hiking bag. You will also be given a sleeping bag linear which helps with insolation at night for within your sleeping bag. So make sure there is a little extra room in your bag for a few of these additional items.
After a short safety briefing, we took our first steps of our journey.
You start this journey off with a bang. The initial 3 miles is a steady incline of 1500 feet during those initial miles. You will reach a high level parking lot at P3 and your journey continues on form there, uphill and even steeper. But during this whole time, even though your thighs are burning. You are surrounded by the most beautiful scenery.
The path to Trolltunga is well marked so it is difficult to get lost. There are many other hikers who do this trail individually without a guide, as a single day round trip hike. We had plenty of people on the trail with us.
Once you have started, it is a one way destination, you will pass through some of the most remote parts of Norway high up in the mountains. You reach a point where the incline starts to become more gradual and evens out which is an amazing feeling at that point. The scenery continues to get more breathtaking the deeper in you get.
Incase of an emergency, there are 3-4 emergency cabins located along the trail which holds simple provisions to keep you safe until emergency services gets to your. There is a walkie-talkie and a safety box inside.
As we got closer to our destination, it was getting later in the day and the rain was starting to pick up. Our tour guide gave us an option to continue towards Trolltunga or head towards the eco-dome for the night. Our group was pretty exhausted and with the worsening rain, we decided to head to the eco-dome and plan for Trolltunga in the AM.
The eco-domes are fairly large but with 7 people and hiking gear, jackets and everything inside, the space does get a little tight, you have to coordinate movements around with others around you. It is definitely a cool experience nonetheless.
As it started to get later in the day, our guide started prepping dinner. We removed the pre-prepped meals from our bags. She started to heat the food and cook rice and cut up fresh vegetables. The rest of us helped with prepping, we made some coffee and tea to enjoy before dinner.
We all sat and enjoyed dinner and each others company and got to know one another better.
Soon after we called it a night as we were all exhausted from the day. We were all excited for tomorrow as we would finally get to Trolltunga but not before a good nights rest.
CONTINUE ON TO DAY 2 OF OUR HIKE TO TROLLTUNGA HERE.
Back to our Norway adventures HERE.
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