Thursday 29/06/2017 Skjaggedal – Trolltunga
Odda District, NORWAY
Participants: Stephen Davies (Photos), Sue Davies (Report)
This walk is accessed from the small town of Skjaggedal near Odda, south of Bergen. We reached this destination by hire car, driving from Tyssedal. A fee is payable at the private car park at the start of the walk.
Highlights of the walk include stunning lake views, the iconic “Troll’s Tongue” and high level mountain scenery.
Max elevation: 1268 m
Total climbing: 2281 m
Total descent: -2278 m
Average speed: 3.54 km/h
Total time: 10:43:12
With limited available car parking and knowing how popular this hike is we started walking at 6:10am, which is very early for us!
The first 1.7km was the steepest section of the walk. It was comparable to walking up stone steps for most of that distance. Much of the trail had been built by Nepalese Sherpas and was in good condition apart from some mud in a few sections.
As we walked higher the weather began to deteriorate. The wind picking up and the temperature dropping quite a bit. Despite Sue forgetting to pack her gloves and beanie we made do with the clothes we had and pressed on.
This walk is not difficult, just long. As we climbed higher we were rewarded with stunning lake views and of course many photo stops. There are plenty of markers along the way advising of each kilometre walked.
Ringedalsvatnet below
Before we knew it we were at Trolltunga itself. What a sight it is. Fortuneately, it was not as crowded as we had expected, probably aided by our early start and the less than favourable weather conditions. Steve was first to pose for photos on the Troll’s tongue. Sue was spooked as a young woman had fallen to her death here in recent times. With encouragement Sue was soon out there as well but not as close to the edge as so many other people were.
We had lunch huddled beside a rock for shelter as it was cold and misty. By lunch’s end the weather appeared a little brighter so we had another round of photos out around Trolltunga. It is a beautiful spot that was very hard to leave.
Our walk back was not that fast as on the way in as the views were even better on our return ,so there were many stops.
We arrived back to the car at about 5:00pm, nearly 11 hours after we had started. It had been a huge day but it really was wonderful to spend it surrounded by “the nature “. As with a number of other trips we have recently completed we discovered during this hike that there are additions we could have made to this walk. It would have been fantastic to camp out in the area around Trolltunga and continue on past it for a few days additional exploration of this wonderful area.
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