Page 36 - 2023 AMA Spring

MISCARTICLE
with hardworking staff providing simple meals for hungry hikers, while others are not far off hotel style accommo- dation with a real focus on enabling outdoor activities. Out of season these larger huts may shut and have a second building that operates as a self-service or unserviced hut.
• Self-service huts will have an honesty larder to use in the excellent kitchen. You log what you use and pay after your trip.
• Unserviced huts include gas, firewood, well equipped kitchens, candles and increasingly, provide solar lights and USB chargers.
ADVENTURE TRAINING
All of the information above would probably help with planning most trips but AT clearance procedures always want to know that bit more.... Below are the details that were sufficient even for the RAF medical plan system and, as their templates require a field dressing and personal first aid kit for a jolly to the Houses of Parliament or on a duty visit to the RAF museum at Cosford, we can assume they are the real masters of emergency planning to nth degree.
• Firstly, the only snake in Norway is the adder and it is no more dangerous than those found in the UK.
•Secondly, the medical system is excellent and accessed by dialling 113 (or via the 113 app on Android and IOS that automates location reporting and supports accessing defibrillators etc.). Within Norway, most GPs don’t do out of hours cover so there is a “Legevakt” system via 116117 to get advice or in person care at what would probably be called a ‘minor injuries clinic’. In Stavanger, primary health care is available at Stavanger Urgent Care Centre, Armauer Hansensvei 30, 4011 Stavanger. For deployed hospital care, there is the Stavanger Emergency Room at Stavanger Universitetssjuke- hus (University Hospital), Gerd-Ragna
36 / ARMY MOUNTAINEER
Bloch, Thorsens gate 8, 4011 Stavanger. (Note: addresses correct as at 2022). A new hospital is being built at present so Google for updates for 2024 onwards.
• In addition to normal ambulances, there are the basic helicopters that support the large rural areas of Southern Norway but if winching is needed, Stavanger Airport hosts Navy Rescue helicopters for Search and Rescue and they are tasked by the same control room if needed. If one of the two types of helicopters can’t make it, then fortunately there is also the Thunderbird 4 option – the 35-knot ambulance boat.
• Full details of the Defence Attaché process are contained in the ‘yellow book’. The DA team in Oslo are very on-side with the Norwegian Military being equally supportive. No bilingual forms in triplicate or other in-person reg- istration needed. Once approved, your only remaining requirement is to simply send an email before arrival, just in case there are any important updates.
• This article is not intended to sugarcoat things. As with any location, there
can be crime or issues with alcohol and drugs, but compared to many other destinations we undertake AT in (or indeed much of the UK) this risk appears to be lower in Norway. With normal, simple precautions issues like these should hopefully be avoided.
Norwegian Essentials. Many routes will be
marked with red paint or other markings. Just as important is the Kvikk Lunsj which is the Norwegian equivalent to a KitKat (but with better chocolate – sorry Nestle!) that is the staple of any Norwegian’s hiking trip and to this day still has the “Fjellvettre- glene” (mountain safety code) written on the wrapper reminding you to have a map and compass.
Southern Norway Scenery. Byrkedal in the valley at about 200m ASL with surrounding hills at 560-700m ASL
Stavanger area, its huts and main routes. The figures on the routes are ‘optimistic’ Norwegian hour timings between each. If you thought the SMC’s Munro timings were a dark art and rather challenging, don’t assume 3 means 3 hours if your name is not Annetta or Bjoern...
Southern Norway scenery. A typical mountain farm on what I will pretend is a typical summer day of warm sun and gentle breeze marking weeks when we can barely remember what Gore-Tex is for... In reality the climate is genuinely Scottish with plenty of weather coming in from the North Sea.