Page 21 - Army Mountaineer Winter 2022

In this first of two articles, Ben White recaps his August 2022 tri-service trekking expedition to Lysefjord,
Norway with the Joint Warfare Centre. Next year, Ben will share vital planning considerations for others visiting to train in Norway.
Exercise LYSEFJORD LAP was a small unit expedition run from the Joint Warfare Centre (JWC) in Norway. Its aims were to help integrate new arrivals into the small UK community at the JWC. Organising such an expedition, even within our ‘backyard’ in Norway was surprisingly challenging – the delight of being a joint unit (with the RAF designated as the lead for AT clearance procedures) and the 2-year gap in activities probably causing some to forget their roles and responsi- bilities in this respect. The ‘J’ in JSATFA clearly not meaning ‘joint’ as the RAF would insist on Word documents which many would recognise from Army AT procedures from the early 2000s, well before ATSYS. It was thus a reduced group permitted to hit the hills for two 3-day packages to hike first the south, and then the north of Lysefjord. The split into separate sections was to encourage attendance as with the exercise season just around the corner, it was felt that 3 days out of office each week, rather than 6 days away, would make it more accessible for those new in post. This worked well with only the author doing both weeks and a good spread of RN, RAF, Army, new arrivals and experienced staff attending.
Climbing the Florli steps
Lysefjord is 42km long and only about 30 mins by boat from Stavanger. The Norwegian Trekking Association (the DNT) has made the circuit of Lysefjord one of its ‘Signatur’ (literally “signature”) routes which is a designation applied to notable multi-day hikes through world class scenery that is graded as demanding in their classification system. The designation means some of the signage is updated, mapping annotated and the excellent ‘www.ut.no’ site will probably have English language descriptions included in anticipation of more visitors from overseas. The presence of such an iconic route, that includes famous sites such as Preikestolen, Kjerag and the Florli steps, so close to JWC made choosing it as an activity simple. The split into two
groups taking place over different weeks also allowed us to experience the delight- fully varied Norwegian weather, with Group 1 definitely enjoying the challenge of all day Gore-Tex and gaiters, while Group 2 had to contend with suncream and rest/water stops.
The exercise started well with mild weather and a gentle climb from Vinddalen up onto the rim of mountains that surround Lysefjord on the southern side of the fjord. The afternoon was spent losing all 760m of height to return to sea level and an overnight in the isolated hamlet of Florli, an old hydroelectric plant from the 1900s that now has old workers cottages converted into a DNT hut and other holiday homes. Only accessible by boat, it does at least in the summer months have a small café in the historic turbine hall so ice creams supplemented the CILOR staples carried in with us. The following day started mild and muggy which made the return to 740m all the more memorable. There are two main routes from Florli back onto the hills; the first of which we had walked down yesterday so it had to be the second the following day.
All 741m of climb back from sea level was therefore done via the (in)famous Florli steps, that are proudly marketed as the world’s longest wooden staircase. These 4444 steps left by the workers building the hydro scheme back in the early 20th Century still run beside the defunct pipes and are quite the sustained quad burning
The Preikestolen to Høllesliheia route keeps to the edge of the cliffs above the fjord
ARMY MOUNTAINEER / 21