Trolltunga: Hardest Norwegian Hike... So Far ;-)

This past weekend Jason let me go for an overnight with my girlfriends Kathryn and Kirsten. Some people like to do vino and movies for girl's night... we like to go camping and hiking. ;-)

The hiking season is coming to a close (unless you want to truck it through snow... no thanks) so this was one of the last weekends we had to hike this monster. It's a 22 km (13.7 mile hike) that's about 4.5 hours away from Stavanger. We left Friday afternoon and camped near the start of the hike.

Saturday morning we got started on the ridiculously hard 1.5 km straight up staircase. Who needs coffee when you have stairs, right?! Right.

The rest of the hike (all short 9.5 km remaining) was relatively moderate. It didn't get any worse than Preikestolen or Kjerag (in my opinion), but is obviously loads longer making it challenging. However, the weather was ideal (cool, but not really rainy; windy, but only enough to blow you two or three steps forward which is movement in the right direction).

And then you get to the top and it. was. all. worth. it. Because you get to see this - such amazing and beautiful horizons that pictures cannot do justice to (especially mine... really missed Jason's picture-taking on this trip...)

And then we headed down. The last 1.5 km was as difficult (if not more) than the uphill and my knees were screaming by the end. It took about 8.5 hours total (including a 15-20 min break at the top for pictures and lunch).

We headed back to Stavanger and I took pictures out the window as we drove home. Sadly they are about as good of quality as the ones where I tried during the hike...

All in all, it was an absolutely amazing experience and I am so happy that I did it! It was a challenging, but rewarding hike and definitely one of the most beautiful in Norway... so far!