Page 34 - 2023 AMA Spring

MISCARTICLE
HILLWALKING AND ADVENTURE TRAINING IN SOUTHERN NORWAY
Ben White
In his second article, Ben White offers some thoughts and simple guidance on planning adventure training in the mountains of Southern Norway
While the mention of Norway and Adventure Training (AT) will get some of you coiling ropes and sharpening crampons, others enjoy the quiet and wilderness in different ways. Instead of arriving and heading straight for Rjukan or Hardanger, there are other options for us summer hikers with scenery that will rival anything to be found in Scotland but with a different feel and overseas aspect that can help energise a unit AT plan. Below are some notes about southern Norway and information which could assist AT over here or if planning other personal trips to Norway in late spring to early autumn.
STAVANGER
Found in the South West of Norway on a latitude similar to Orkney, Stavanger is the 4th largest city in Norway but to most Brits will feel like a pleasant mid-size town. Due to summer tourism and oil, it has a lively, multicultural feel. Its small airport has direct flights to Gatwick, Newcastle, Edinburgh and Aberdeen with many more options from national and low-cost airlines if changing in Oslo or one of the big European hubs like Amsterdam Schiphol.
The town itself has dozens of hotels, Airbnb etc. and plenty of places to spend
your CILOR as you prepare for a trip into the hills. Most types of resealable gas canisters are available in the numerous camping and outdoor sports shops. In the event of forgotten gear or other issues the same shops have everything you could ever want, and more than most outdoor shops outside of Fort Bill or the Lake District honeypots. Even the familiar Intersport chain is here and it too has more high-end Norrøna and Rab than Martin South’s winter gear cupboard.
farm quays or isolated spots with track junctions. They are a great way to start or finish any trip.
Driving in Norway will require a detailed assessment of your knowledge of German and French road signs via the European matrix tick test before your FMT 600 is endorsed for work trips. This test passed, the rather more relevant ‘www. vegvesen.no’ site should be consulted to see what the Norwegian rules actually are. Speed limits are generally lower than the UK with fines typically expensive, lights should be on all the time and pedestrians have absolute priority on all crossings so approach with caution as most locals will not even look up before stepping out.
TRANSPORT TO THE HILL AND
WHERE TO HIKE
While the airport has plenty of interna- tional car hire options, the public transport is typically Scandinavian with clean, timely buses and ferries that permit plenty of one-way routes and the means of avoiding the base camp and minibus if that is what is wanted. There are several handy websites beyond the normal Google route planner with ‘www.vy.no’ being a good standard for all of Norway and covering trains, buses and ferries whilst providing a good steer to individual firms for ticket purchases.
The fast catamaran ferries deserve special mention as they will take you deep into fjords and backcountry to a series of ‘request’ stops that deposit you on old
OTHER USEFUL RESOURCES FOR
ROUTE PLANNING ARE:
• www.ut.no – An incredible website showing 1000s of hikes, ski trails and associated mapping (including gradient profiles). The downloadable and free app permits much of this detail to be available on your phone offline too.
• Recorded routes or even marked paths need not constrain you. There is a deep and fundamental ‘right to roam’ – “allemannsretten” – within Norwegian law and wider culture as part of their “friluftsliv”. This includes the right to
Sandvatn Hut View in October. The hut is 6-7 hours from the roadside drop off The ambulance boat
34 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Bakken Jetty. Once the concrete of the jetty ends it is straight onto footpaths ringing Lysefjord