Preikestolen and Preikebroken

Y’all…..Y’ALL, y’all. This post will be shorter than the last, but I felt it necessary to write. We left Kristiansand and took the train north to Stavanger the spend the night before venturing out to Priekestolen, the iconic Pedestal Rock in Norway. We ventured out on the ferry toward Tau where we took a bus to the trailhead for the Prikestolen hike.Once we got to the trailhead, we embarked on our journey. We had our packs and made the roughly 1000+ ft elevation gain to the top. Holy wow, there were so many people. It felt like Disney World as people waited in line for their picture at the cliff’s edge.Feeling a little overwhelmed, we documented the fact we survived the trip to the top and ventured back down. Just to mention, it was beautiful. The smooth granite rock faces extending down toward the blue water was really moving.(Featured: Morgan’s daily brush with giving me a heart attack.)(Featured: People we do not know.)“Hey look, we made it!”Venturing back down halfway, we set to complete the roughly 9 mile hike toward our destination at Songesand.

Y’all, if I can give any advice here, do not start a 9 mile hike later than noon in a country you are not familiar with the terrain! Also, if it’s predicted to rain the entire day, maybe pick another one for your travels. Finally, Norway landscape is no joke! It’s so beautiful, but not to be taken lightly.

Morgan and I set out down the trail around 2 PM thinking based on our previous pace, we’d have no problem making our intended ETA. Boy, were we wrong. This trail saw much, much less use than the main trail to the Pedestal Rock, and it was steep drops and climbs across sometimes very slick granite boulders, trudging through peat bogs sometimes with a narrow board to walk across, traversing granite walls with chain ropes to keep you from falling toward a bed of rocks, scrambling along high open cliff sides, and multiple precarious stream crossings. All of this in a constant drizzle of rain to top it off, and we did not bring our headlamps because we were so certain of our time arrival. I’ve hiked and backpacked a fair amount, but this was not my forte. It’s laughable now that we made it alive and are writing from a dry comfortable room, but dang was it a feat. I slipped and fell multiple times on the slippery rocks (feeling a little stiff today), managed to trip and fall into the stream as I was holding onto the assistance line, soaking all my previously washed clothes, my backpack, and most of my body, slid off the boards crossing the peat bogs (twice!) soaking my legs up to the thigh, and cried probably 3 separate times, once including a fully blown panic attack. It was getting dark, and we were moving extremely slow. Thank God Morgan literally held my hand, took my backpack, and talked me through it. I was in my head, even though I knew it would all be fine. We even passed a random mountain shop playing Huey Lewis along the trail, which had to be a good omen, right??Just as it was starting to get dark to where we couldn’t see, we made it to Bakken, one of the many rustic cabins Norway has installed on the trails for backpackers to use. It was a beacon. Although we wouldn’t make it to Songesand, we had shelter from the rain, and a place to sleep. We even met a really nice Polish couple backpacking the entire loop.

We slept there, and this morning, started out on the remaining few kilometers toward our previously intended destination. It was a beautiful clear morning, and we immediately got back into similar scrambling of granite boulders, chain traverses, and the like. I fortunately was able to focus much better today. The nice weather was a big game changer, and we made it to our current home, from where I’m writing to you now.Here ya go. Yesterday was really unfamiliar and very challenging, but I learned a lot. I have to really take the time to give a shout out to Morgan who stepped up to help me through. He was awesome, and I’m grateful. Final words, Norway is awesome, but the landscape is literally no “walk in the woods”. Lol.