After breakfast we hopped in the car to start the drive to Odda. Odda is virtually unknown except for the fact that one of Norway's most popular hikes, Trolltunga, starts there. I mean look how beautiful!
Our plan was to get to Odda and hike Trolltunga. Ken had found this hike a few years ago and it was one of our reasons for going to Norway. We honestly debated about hiking it just because it is quite a bit out of the way of the other things we wanted to do. Alas, we decided that we would probably only be in Norway once, so we should hike.
Once in the car the rain continued. Just about every time we had a drive longer than an hour, I would fall asleep. I have no idea why I could not keep my eyes open, but poor Ken was flying solo for most of our drives. I just could not stay awake! It was not for lack of gorgeous scenery, because it was beautiful. Waterfalls were all around. I snapped a picture when I finally woke up to see waterfalls coming down Mt. Vik.
Clouds, a steep drop off, and waterfalls galore.
A small roadblock. We brake for sheep. I really have no idea where mama sheep was going. It was a drop off to the fjord on the other side.
The weather had started to clear up once we got closer to Odda and we debated about if we should attempt to hike Trolltunga that night instead of waiting until the morning. The forecast was for rain the next time, but we were unsure how light it would be as we hiked back. We did not bring a headlamp so we could not handle any darkness.
We arrived to Odda and drove to the trail head so we would know where to go in the morning. Ultimately, we decided just to wait until the morning to hike. We were both so unsure about hiking it overnight, that we wanted to play it safe.
Odda had a different vibe than the other towns we visited. It is definitely a town that has its own economy and does not just rely on tourism dollars. You can also tell that the hype of Trolltunga has caused the city to have to add more hotel options. There was a lot of construction going on of what appeared to be lodging options.
Fjord views from Odda
The bustling metropolis of Odda
I bet it looks prettier in the sunshine
Odda has very few restaurants and we decided to go to the Co-op to pick up something for dinner to have at our Airbnb. Ken was fighting off some sort of cold virus, so we wanted to take it easy. Not that there is much to do around Odda anyways.
Day 7
We both woke up just before 5:00 am and we decided to go ahead and get ready to go to the trail. We ate some serial and took off. It was light out already and we arrived to the parking area at 5:45 am. There is a higher parking area that is above where we parked that opens at 6:00 am. We decided to park in the lower section and hike up the road to the trail head as I need the hill training for Leadville. In hindsight, we should have waited and parked in the higher parking area.
It was raining, but nothing too crazy. The temperature was probably in the 40's. It was cold, but not freezing. We were ready to hike Trolltunga.
Ready to roll!
That is where we were headed!
It was really gray and raining on and off
The red "T" was the trail marker and they were all easy to spot. The trail was a pretty easy trail with not a lot of climbing.
Trail views on the way to Trolltunga
Out of nowhere, it started snowing. It was snowing pretty decent size flakes, but we were still having fun.
Climbing in the snow
Still smiling, but the wind is starting to pick up and it was a little difficult to see a this point.
Like I said, at this point the snow was fun.
I was starting to get a little cold at this point, but we were still making progress. It started snowing on us again and I started to feel really light headed for some reason. I am pretty positive that my blood sugar got a little low. We stopped by one of the emergency houses and I ate a few snacks, added a pair of pants and another shirt, and we were on our way.
While we were in the hut the wind really picked up. I mean REALLY picked up. It was blowing so strong. We kept on and at this point I had stopped talking. Completely. We hit more snow and the wind was blowing about 30 mph and it had to be in the low 30's upper 20's. It was horrible. I could not even see and it started sleeting on us.
Ken looked at me and I teared up. I told him I thought this was a bad idea to keep going. I could barely see in front of me and I kept envisioning one of us getting hypothermia. We had about 4k to go to get to the site and I was concerned that we not be able to see the Troll's tongue. I also kept thinking that if we were hiking in Colorado and this happened, we would turn around no questions asked.
So, we turned around. I think Ken was initially a little mad at me, but that was very short lived. Turns out, he left his gloves at the apartment and could barely feel his fingers. It just was not worth risking a life altering illness to take a picture of something.
We turned around and faced the wind the whole way back. I took a video and this was not even the worst part of the wind.
It was the most miserable hike ever.
We saw many people that were still heading to the site and some did not look prepared for snow either. All I know is that we read that many rescues happened on the trail that day. Of course the one day we decide to hike the weather is horrible.
We were pretty disappointed but also frozen. The hike back to the car was absolutely miserable and I could not have imagined doing the additional 4K to get to the tongue and come all the way back.
I feel like this pictures sums things up nicely.
We drove back to downtown Odda and stopped at a bakery for the largest lattes we could buy. Ken felt even worse at this point so we took hot showers and laid down for a while.
I enjoyed some paprika chips and Netflix while Ken slept. Paprika are my favorite and we have only found them in Europe. We ate about four bags of them during our two week trip.
We later went to dinner where I snapped this picture to prove that the sun can actually shine in Odda.
The sun!
We later learned from our Airbnb host that the weather had been absolutely beautiful and sunny in Odda up until the week we arrived. Isn't that funny? We were a little bitter about our weather, but what can you do.
The next day, we drove to Bergen!
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