Besseggen, Preikestolen and the Fimmvörðuháls with a fear of heights
Sep 3rd, 2013, 11:22 AM
#62
Join Date: Sep 2012
Posts: 1,358
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks for the picture links which help put the story together. You may have already said, but who did most of the planning for this trip? (You, the stable or unstable couples? Or maybe all of you.) How many months did it take to get all this together?
Brave people- all of you!
Brave people- all of you!
Sep 3rd, 2013, 01:28 PM
#63
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 32,129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Grassshopper I was exhausted when I read you were in Tel Aviv after your long previous trip. I hate flying.
Finecheapboxofwine - these (Peru and Scandinavia) are our trips to which we invite the two couples. So I organize 95% of the trip. I don't think it takes much time at all. The only difficult decisions are picking a route that makes sense (starting in Stockholm and heading west), finding reasonably priced accommodation in Oslo, and choosing the right rental car - which was a bit of a crap shoot at the end anyway.
But note that we stay in separate hotels for the most part and rent separate cars. And in this case the stable couple decided they had to see Bergen. We thought that was too much driving so we split up for three days.
About the only disagreement was that stable husband wanted to add in a very difficult hike that would have resulted in six consecutive long days of hiking and then driving. I found a great trip report that detailed how difficult the hike was. Once stable wife saw that report the hike was called off.
The group is very easy to get along with.
Finecheapboxofwine - these (Peru and Scandinavia) are our trips to which we invite the two couples. So I organize 95% of the trip. I don't think it takes much time at all. The only difficult decisions are picking a route that makes sense (starting in Stockholm and heading west), finding reasonably priced accommodation in Oslo, and choosing the right rental car - which was a bit of a crap shoot at the end anyway.
But note that we stay in separate hotels for the most part and rent separate cars. And in this case the stable couple decided they had to see Bergen. We thought that was too much driving so we split up for three days.
About the only disagreement was that stable husband wanted to add in a very difficult hike that would have resulted in six consecutive long days of hiking and then driving. I found a great trip report that detailed how difficult the hike was. Once stable wife saw that report the hike was called off.
The group is very easy to get along with.
Sep 3rd, 2013, 06:24 PM
#64
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 540
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
colduphere:
Fantastic trip report! Thank you so much! We will be in Norway next June/July and I had planned to do the Pulpit Rock hike. That notch in the rock between the dog and the hiker looks scary. Is it a situation where it would have been o.k. if it had been earlier--and not so crowded?
To me it looks like you'd have to hug the rock to make it around. If that's true, I don't see how the dog could even make it to the top. How dangerous do you think it is?
Fantastic trip report! Thank you so much! We will be in Norway next June/July and I had planned to do the Pulpit Rock hike. That notch in the rock between the dog and the hiker looks scary. Is it a situation where it would have been o.k. if it had been earlier--and not so crowded?
To me it looks like you'd have to hug the rock to make it around. If that's true, I don't see how the dog could even make it to the top. How dangerous do you think it is?
Sep 3rd, 2013, 07:05 PM
#65
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 32,129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Hi Caligirl. My problem was I did not want to get close enough to the edge to see how dangerous it was - I was too nervous to see if I should be nervous! We probably watched 40 people step around the corner. Most didn't even pause. Right hand on the rock. Left foot around the rock. Off they went.
I just asked our son if he was nervous. He said yes and it was entirely because of the number of people. If we had been alone he would not have hesitated for a second. I think I would have gone too. You would really have to trip yourself up to have a problem.
As for the dog I am guessing she was put on a leash at that point. I sure hope the Great Dane was. Have a great trip.
I just asked our son if he was nervous. He said yes and it was entirely because of the number of people. If we had been alone he would not have hesitated for a second. I think I would have gone too. You would really have to trip yourself up to have a problem.
As for the dog I am guessing she was put on a leash at that point. I sure hope the Great Dane was. Have a great trip.
Sep 4th, 2013, 04:51 AM
#66
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 32,129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
During dinner a young German couple had shown up and asked if they could sleep on the ground floor (sleeping accommodations were upstairs). They had started their hike quite late in the day, something we noticed many people did. It must have something to do with the extended daylight hours in both Iceland and Norway, and perhaps the willingness of hikers to sprawl down anywhere for the night, with tent or without tent. Our guide told them they couldn’t as the hut was for day-use only and that we had negotiated a one-off agreement with the hut owner.
I believe our guide was doing what he thought we wanted. But they were pleasant so we invited them in to share dinner. The forecast was for the weather to turn very ugly so we told them if it started to rain during the night to feel free to come in (they had a tent). Later after we had gone to bed we heard a strange voice downstairs. An Austrian man had come along almost in the dark and also asked if he could sleep on the bottom level. He was carrying a 50 pound pack. Our guide did invite him in. I would not want to carry a pack that heavy along some of the trail's narrow ridges.
As I said, the sleeping accommodations were upstairs. Three people slept along one wall, four along the other and one person at each end. The hut was an A-Frame which meant there wasn’t a lot of head room up there. There were mattresses already in the hut on to which we placed our sleeping bags. There was a shaky ladder down to the main floor. Each of us got up during the night and paid a visit to the outhouse. The moon was full and extremely beautiful. As late as 4 am there was no hint of the approaching storm.
We got up around seven. The rain was not hard, but the wind was driving it sideways. It was about 8 degrees (46F). We had an easy hike ahead of us down to Skogar, but it would not be fun. Visibility was perhaps 80 meters. It looked like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiktok-...n/photostream/
We had noticed the previous day that crevices would appear out of nowhere. This was not so much a problem during the hike to Skogar as we were staying pretty close together, and next to our guide because of the poor visibility. He was using a GPS as at times we couldn’t see the signposts even though they were only 50 meters away. But if we were doing the hike again we would be much more wary of crevices. They were unmarked and deep:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiktok-...n/photostream/
We were descending about 2600 feet over a distance of perhaps 12 kilometers. The first part of the route was over a very rough road. We then left the road to follow a trail along a never-ending series of waterfalls that led down to Skogar. In good weather this would be an absolutely beautiful hike. But in bad weather we could barely see a thing. Towards the bottom the rain and mist lifted a bit so that we could see the waterfalls. We’re not talking just a few waterfalls – there were many of them, and they were large.
http://www.pbase.com/stebbith/image/99078230
Of course the trail followed the cliff side to optimize the view. The trail was muddy and often tilted towards the water. This meant there were some tricky descents. There were actually twelve of us picking our way along as the German couple had been unable to follow the trail in the mist and were walking right behind us. You can see how close the trail is to the river:
http://www.pbase.com/stebbith/image/99078153
http://www.pbase.com/stebbith/image/99077458
Our guide taught us how to eat lunch while hiking as Icelanders do. Turn your back to the wind and driving range and eat standing up. He said 50% of his lunches were consumed this way.
I mentioned earlier that we did not know how lucky we had been to find good rain pants in Oslo. Our pants were sorely tested on this day. By the end of the hike just about everyone and everything was soaked. I had water slushing around in my supposedly waterproof hiking boots. They were still wet two days later in Reykjavik. We passed a couple of backpackers going the other way who were carrying tiny umbrellas. That really did look funny. Our guide rolled his eyes and predicted what country the hikers were from. We found out later he was right. An umbrella would do nothing on this day except increase the odds of lifting the hiker up into the sky, a la Mary Poppins:
http://tinyurl.com/k6242yl
Finally we reached Skogar and its famous waterfall:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiktok-...n/photostream/
We arrived at 1:30, 2.5 hours before our regularly scheduled bus was to take us to Rekjavik. We sat in a restaurant and tried to dry out. I gave a short speech thanking our guide. I mentioned was that it was one thing to help a petite 120 pound woman over a rough spot on the trail. It was another to help a 6’3” male. Half way through this comment he burst out laughing and nodded his head. It had clearly occurred to him on the trail that helping me meant that if I fell he was coming with me. Note to hiking bosses – on my next guiding assignment I will not help anyone who has 4 inches and 40 pounds on me.
I believe our guide was doing what he thought we wanted. But they were pleasant so we invited them in to share dinner. The forecast was for the weather to turn very ugly so we told them if it started to rain during the night to feel free to come in (they had a tent). Later after we had gone to bed we heard a strange voice downstairs. An Austrian man had come along almost in the dark and also asked if he could sleep on the bottom level. He was carrying a 50 pound pack. Our guide did invite him in. I would not want to carry a pack that heavy along some of the trail's narrow ridges.
As I said, the sleeping accommodations were upstairs. Three people slept along one wall, four along the other and one person at each end. The hut was an A-Frame which meant there wasn’t a lot of head room up there. There were mattresses already in the hut on to which we placed our sleeping bags. There was a shaky ladder down to the main floor. Each of us got up during the night and paid a visit to the outhouse. The moon was full and extremely beautiful. As late as 4 am there was no hint of the approaching storm.
We got up around seven. The rain was not hard, but the wind was driving it sideways. It was about 8 degrees (46F). We had an easy hike ahead of us down to Skogar, but it would not be fun. Visibility was perhaps 80 meters. It looked like this:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiktok-...n/photostream/
We had noticed the previous day that crevices would appear out of nowhere. This was not so much a problem during the hike to Skogar as we were staying pretty close together, and next to our guide because of the poor visibility. He was using a GPS as at times we couldn’t see the signposts even though they were only 50 meters away. But if we were doing the hike again we would be much more wary of crevices. They were unmarked and deep:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiktok-...n/photostream/
We were descending about 2600 feet over a distance of perhaps 12 kilometers. The first part of the route was over a very rough road. We then left the road to follow a trail along a never-ending series of waterfalls that led down to Skogar. In good weather this would be an absolutely beautiful hike. But in bad weather we could barely see a thing. Towards the bottom the rain and mist lifted a bit so that we could see the waterfalls. We’re not talking just a few waterfalls – there were many of them, and they were large.
http://www.pbase.com/stebbith/image/99078230
Of course the trail followed the cliff side to optimize the view. The trail was muddy and often tilted towards the water. This meant there were some tricky descents. There were actually twelve of us picking our way along as the German couple had been unable to follow the trail in the mist and were walking right behind us. You can see how close the trail is to the river:
http://www.pbase.com/stebbith/image/99078153
http://www.pbase.com/stebbith/image/99077458
Our guide taught us how to eat lunch while hiking as Icelanders do. Turn your back to the wind and driving range and eat standing up. He said 50% of his lunches were consumed this way.
I mentioned earlier that we did not know how lucky we had been to find good rain pants in Oslo. Our pants were sorely tested on this day. By the end of the hike just about everyone and everything was soaked. I had water slushing around in my supposedly waterproof hiking boots. They were still wet two days later in Reykjavik. We passed a couple of backpackers going the other way who were carrying tiny umbrellas. That really did look funny. Our guide rolled his eyes and predicted what country the hikers were from. We found out later he was right. An umbrella would do nothing on this day except increase the odds of lifting the hiker up into the sky, a la Mary Poppins:
http://tinyurl.com/k6242yl
Finally we reached Skogar and its famous waterfall:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tiktok-...n/photostream/
We arrived at 1:30, 2.5 hours before our regularly scheduled bus was to take us to Rekjavik. We sat in a restaurant and tried to dry out. I gave a short speech thanking our guide. I mentioned was that it was one thing to help a petite 120 pound woman over a rough spot on the trail. It was another to help a 6’3” male. Half way through this comment he burst out laughing and nodded his head. It had clearly occurred to him on the trail that helping me meant that if I fell he was coming with me. Note to hiking bosses – on my next guiding assignment I will not help anyone who has 4 inches and 40 pounds on me.
Sep 4th, 2013, 06:38 AM
#67
As I said, the sleeping accommodations were upstairs. Three people slept along one wall, four along the other and one person at each end. The hut was an A-Frame which meant there wasn’t a lot of head room up there. There were mattresses already in the hut on to which we placed our sleeping bags. There was a shaky ladder down to the main floor. >>
cold - that sounds exactly like the "chalet" that we booked for 3 nights on the Snaefellness peninsular, from which we too decamped after one; the difference is that we were in a car, not trying to negotiate a tricky descent in the teaming rain and driving wind. I'nm impressed by your photos - they are very sharp, given the circumstances!
have you booked to go back to Iceland next year?
cold - that sounds exactly like the "chalet" that we booked for 3 nights on the Snaefellness peninsular, from which we too decamped after one; the difference is that we were in a car, not trying to negotiate a tricky descent in the teaming rain and driving wind. I'nm impressed by your photos - they are very sharp, given the circumstances!
have you booked to go back to Iceland next year?
Sep 4th, 2013, 07:07 AM
#68
Join Date: Apr 2012
Posts: 4,549
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
What a challenging adventure. Did the unstable couple ever get back to equal footing, or did you have to keep them separated on the dangerous parts of the trail, lest one of them accidentally fall?
I have been curious. Are any of the posted photos yours, or did you grift them all off the internet? They sure are beautiful and helpful.
I have been curious. Are any of the posted photos yours, or did you grift them all off the internet? They sure are beautiful and helpful.
Sep 4th, 2013, 07:07 AM
#69
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 32,129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Ann I should have made it clearer that we did not take those pictures. There are a lot of pictures available on the Internet of each stage of the hike. You can easily follow along with someone else's pictures, especially once you fugure out which direction they were going in.
I did not take one picture during the entire trip. The other four members of our family took a few each with their phones. Stable husband took about 1000 which he has now sent us on flicker. I know it's laughable but we have never used a photo sharing site and have not yet taken the time to figure out how to do so. When I do I will post a few of his.
I did not take one picture during the entire trip. The other four members of our family took a few each with their phones. Stable husband took about 1000 which he has now sent us on flicker. I know it's laughable but we have never used a photo sharing site and have not yet taken the time to figure out how to do so. When I do I will post a few of his.
Sep 4th, 2013, 07:44 AM
#72
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 32,129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sorry for the confusion Colleen. I thought it was clear they weren't our pictures as many of them are from Wikipedia, or other websites, or are dated from other years. And I did say to Ms Go ... "I wish I had your ability to take pictures and produce trip reports. This will be the official report of our trip and there are no pictures of our own."
Not that everyone should remember what I said above. We are simply not picture takers. I better get to work on those pictures our friend sent us.
Not that everyone should remember what I said above. We are simply not picture takers. I better get to work on those pictures our friend sent us.
Sep 5th, 2013, 05:27 AM
#76
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 32,129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The bus took its time driving us back from Skogar to Reykjavik. I wonder if they have express buses in Iceland? This bus was stopping very frequently. And it was raining hard. Finally about 7:30 pm we arrived back at our hostel. A tiny room with bunk beds taking up half the room is fine for us most of the time. But we had a lot of clothes to hang up to dry. The room ended up looking like a crowded wet closet.
The next day would be our last full day in Reykjavik. We had originally planned to visit the Blue Lagoon, the famous geothermal spa half way between the city and the airport. Both our guide and a couple of other people (including someone here on Fodors but I can’t remember who) had suggested we try a cheaper city pool instead. Our guide told us we would not find any Reykjavik residents at the Blue Lagoon – too expensive and viewed as a bit of a rip-off. So we found a city pool within walking distance of our hotels:
http://www.visitreykjavik.is/vesturbaejarlaug
Instead of $60 each and a significant bus ride to the Blue Lagoon we paid about $5 each for a couple of hours at this place. The woman at the front desk was friendly but made it clear we had to FOLLOW THE RULES. They included showering naked. Which was fine except that one local was obviously not pleased with the length of my shower (3-4 minutes perhaps). On the way out I saw a sign that provided insight into his irritation. The sign was in Icelandic but I think it said that a minimum 15 minute shower was required. I wouldn’t know what to wash for 15 minutes.
We have since read that most of these pools have signs giving precise instructions on which parts of the body guests should pay particular attention to during their showers. I wonder if they use arrows. And speaking of arrows, youngest son followed the arrows right into the women’s change room by mistake and almost collided with a naked local resident. And none of our female members had seen the sign about naked showers. I am betting the locals were happy when we left.
Although we had 18 hours left in the city that was basically it for us. My wife is a professional packer. She wanted to start packing Thursday night for a Friday afternoon departure. The Flybus minibus picked us up at 1:30 Friday afternoon, drove us to the main bus station where we caught the larger bus to the airport. This process took 90 minutes, a little longer than we had planned. But there was no one at the airport so we had plenty of time to make our flight. And that was it.
Other minor trip notes:
In Stockholm I gave up my seat to a lady who was carrying numerous packages. She nodded, placed her packages on the seat and went to the back of the bus to chat with her friends. I trust the packages were comfortable.
At Stavanger airport my wife was thoroughly inspected by a security agent. If any of you pass through Stavanger do not hide anything in your underwear – front or back. It will be found.
When we parked the car at the Park N Fly at Toronto airport at the start of the trip, we had all pledged to remember what section of the parking lot we had parked in. Then oldest son said not to worry he would take a picture of the locator sign. Except when we returned at the end of the trip the picture was fuzzy and impossible to read. This led to great hilarity on the mini bus as we drove around the lot with the other 15 passengers providing advice as to where we should get out. Next time we will keep that piece of paper that tells us where we parked.
Thanks to everyone who has read this report. I will return with pictures when I learn how to create my own album from someone else’s Flickr collection.
The next day would be our last full day in Reykjavik. We had originally planned to visit the Blue Lagoon, the famous geothermal spa half way between the city and the airport. Both our guide and a couple of other people (including someone here on Fodors but I can’t remember who) had suggested we try a cheaper city pool instead. Our guide told us we would not find any Reykjavik residents at the Blue Lagoon – too expensive and viewed as a bit of a rip-off. So we found a city pool within walking distance of our hotels:
http://www.visitreykjavik.is/vesturbaejarlaug
Instead of $60 each and a significant bus ride to the Blue Lagoon we paid about $5 each for a couple of hours at this place. The woman at the front desk was friendly but made it clear we had to FOLLOW THE RULES. They included showering naked. Which was fine except that one local was obviously not pleased with the length of my shower (3-4 minutes perhaps). On the way out I saw a sign that provided insight into his irritation. The sign was in Icelandic but I think it said that a minimum 15 minute shower was required. I wouldn’t know what to wash for 15 minutes.
We have since read that most of these pools have signs giving precise instructions on which parts of the body guests should pay particular attention to during their showers. I wonder if they use arrows. And speaking of arrows, youngest son followed the arrows right into the women’s change room by mistake and almost collided with a naked local resident. And none of our female members had seen the sign about naked showers. I am betting the locals were happy when we left.
Although we had 18 hours left in the city that was basically it for us. My wife is a professional packer. She wanted to start packing Thursday night for a Friday afternoon departure. The Flybus minibus picked us up at 1:30 Friday afternoon, drove us to the main bus station where we caught the larger bus to the airport. This process took 90 minutes, a little longer than we had planned. But there was no one at the airport so we had plenty of time to make our flight. And that was it.
Other minor trip notes:
In Stockholm I gave up my seat to a lady who was carrying numerous packages. She nodded, placed her packages on the seat and went to the back of the bus to chat with her friends. I trust the packages were comfortable.
At Stavanger airport my wife was thoroughly inspected by a security agent. If any of you pass through Stavanger do not hide anything in your underwear – front or back. It will be found.
When we parked the car at the Park N Fly at Toronto airport at the start of the trip, we had all pledged to remember what section of the parking lot we had parked in. Then oldest son said not to worry he would take a picture of the locator sign. Except when we returned at the end of the trip the picture was fuzzy and impossible to read. This led to great hilarity on the mini bus as we drove around the lot with the other 15 passengers providing advice as to where we should get out. Next time we will keep that piece of paper that tells us where we parked.
Thanks to everyone who has read this report. I will return with pictures when I learn how to create my own album from someone else’s Flickr collection.
Sep 5th, 2013, 06:29 AM
#77
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 310
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Sorry cold my confusion, you did make that clear. I did wonder how anyone could take pictures in those conditions. The shaking of the hands on the camera from fear alone would ruin my pictures. Great trip report.
Sep 5th, 2013, 09:34 AM
#78
On the way out I saw a sign that provided insight into his irritation. The sign was in Icelandic but I think it said that a minimum 15 minute shower was required. I wouldn’t know what to wash for 15 minutes.
We have since read that most of these pools have signs giving precise instructions on which parts of the body guests should pay particular attention to during their showers>>
if you'd paid your $60 each to go to the Blue Lagoon, you'd still have had the naked shower experience but it wasn't timed, so far as i know. and you get to wallow about in larval mud, which is an interesting experience for about 30 secs.
we went there in the evening after we'd booked into our hotel near the airport for our early morning flight out, which is probably why a lot of people go - that or it's part of a weird hen/stag weekend package.
overall i think that the city centre pool was a better bet.
We have since read that most of these pools have signs giving precise instructions on which parts of the body guests should pay particular attention to during their showers>>
if you'd paid your $60 each to go to the Blue Lagoon, you'd still have had the naked shower experience but it wasn't timed, so far as i know. and you get to wallow about in larval mud, which is an interesting experience for about 30 secs.
we went there in the evening after we'd booked into our hotel near the airport for our early morning flight out, which is probably why a lot of people go - that or it's part of a weird hen/stag weekend package.
overall i think that the city centre pool was a better bet.
Sep 6th, 2013, 04:39 AM
#80
Original Poster
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 32,129
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Nikki - that's an interesting comment and I shouldn't guess at precisely what you mean. But one of the things my wife and I have talked about since returning is how our number one responsibility as parents (though it changes over time) is to protect our kids. In this case I let them all down by putting them in a dangerous situation - Besseggen. As a wife and mother she said she would not let me do it again, though she knows I won't anyway. I was more frightened than any of them.
