The route explained and put into perspective by the simple records.

Names, lines and figures

Final route

The route as it was hiked was true to the design except for an obvious, brief off-trail short-cut and a summit route I changed for the low level alternative due to a mix of weather and a poor fit on stage breakdown. Direction of travel was southbound.

The trip bordered counties Vestland and Rogaland on the west side and counties Innlandet, Buskerud, Telemark and Agder on the east.

Distance: 471 km

My rough rule of thumb when planning for a trip is 400 km per fortnight. I had to add one day to the trip plan due to airline shifting schedules and took this as a chance to find a very stylish end point, further south than I had originally pictured, and squeeze 471 km into it.

Hiking days: 15

Hiking for 15 days straight with no breaks.

Average per day: 31.5 km

The usual word of caution here: it is far more challenging to average whatever the figure than to cover the same distance on any single day. There will be shorter days due to resupply, weather or other circumstances.

Longest day: 41 km

This was part of a 3 day stretch where I hiked across Hardangervidda in nearly ideal conditions to a 40 km/day average. Hardangervidda is mostly flat and, contrary to my uninformed expectations, the ground on my route was firm and dry. Together with the fair weather, it helped me build the cushion I’d need before the final push.

Hardangervidda

Full hiking days: 11

These are the days where I’d start early, finish late and do nothing but hiking. Typically around 12+ h hiking time, including breaks.

Partial hiking days: 4

These are the days where there was some significant time when I could have been hiking and I wasn’t. This would always hurt but there always was some good reason.

On day 5, the weather was cold, drizzly and feeling very unstable. I hit a hut by late afternoon and decided to stay put. It snowed a few cm during the night.

Mid-trip, there was resupply day through a box I had sent to a stuffed mountain hut that I reached by late afternoon. I could have repackaged and left but the weather was getting stormy and there was rain upcoming in the evening. I also thought it’d make sense to get myself stuffed with a good dinner and breakfast before resuming and this was a good move. It actually felt like a fresh start at the cost of 4 or 5 hours worth of hiking.

My mid-trip free evening

There was just one day that was actually short, only 13 km in the second-to-last, when I could already afford it. I was in the middle of a rainy spell and planned for a hut-to-hut day to the last hut I’d meet in my route.

The last one was the final day, where I only hiked 25 km. A body of water prevented any further progress.

Days with rain: 6

This was a remarkably dry trip compared to my previous experience in Norway, more so considering that heavy precipitation only happened during two of those days and mostly during the non-hiking hours.

A rainy day in the Ryfylke plateau

Camp nights: 7

As usual, I kept camping as my default and went for the huts when the conditions were rough. Once again, in Norway, this translated into a 50/50 share.

Morning light in Jotunheimen

Hut stays: 9

This figure includes the nights before and after. Out of the other 7, all but one were unstuffed huts.

It’d been a good time to be inside for the night

Full resupplies: 1

There were no on-trail options other than the hut pantry rooms. There were several road crossings with public transport but any side trip to a grocery store would have been time costly so I decided to send a box to one of the stuffed huts, the one that I met on day 7. I had the box ready from home and sent it on arrival to Norway. It arrived in Finse hut just one day before I did.

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This resupply strategy broke the trip into two sections of 7 and 8 days, which is a big longer than I like to carry food for but my max food load was about 5 days worth. I supplemented on the go with the pantry room for the huts I stayed in.

Breakfast buffets: 4

Loving breakfast overall and hiking 24/7 is the perfect storm situation to enjoy a breakfast buffet. I surely had one on day 1 and last+1 while staying in a stuffed hut pre and post-trip and another one, also in a hut, mid-trip but I also took the opportunity when hiking by whichever stuffed hut if the timing was right, which happened on day 11 in Haukelisetter. I won’t say I stretched the hiking the day before or that I woke up extra-early to make it on time because it wouldn’t be true but I won’t rule my subconscious working in the background out. I do have the feeling that breakfast run in day 11 was key to the success of the trip. Don’t even try to talk me out of that.