Climbing Slogen

17.07.2009

Reidar and Angela, who the Australian crew would know or have most likely met, came to visit us during our time in Sykkylven. So we decided to climb a mountain.

There are so many in the area and so it wasn't hard to choose a good one: Slogen. At 1564m altitude, it may not seem like much but it goes straight from a fjord (sea level) and up so it's still decent. Not too difficult but not a walk to the shops either.

We started by walking up through a valley from a town called Stranda (where they make the Grandiosa pizza - Norway's most trusted frozen pizza). The day turned fairly epic and we finally got back to a car over 11 hours later...

The sign to Patchellhytta

The start of the hike - about 10:30am. Patchelhytta is a hut some English guy built back in the day - you can stay there for free and just bring your own food etc. Actually maybe you need to leave a small donation. I'm not sure.

Green stuff

But not salad. This is some crazy ultra fluro moss.

Reidar, Angela and Paul on a hill

This is maybe half way up the mountain (So about 800m)

A valley

This is taken from the same spot as the previous photo looking down a valley (this would be the way you would come from if you were to drive here). There is a crazy valley with mountains bursting up through the ground either side of the road. Photos do NO justice to this experience.

Another valley

This is the way we walked up in the morning. If you squint you can see the Pizza factory. Just kidding.

Getting rockier

Towards the top it is just loose rocks. great fun when there are steep drop offs either side of your track.

The top!

You can see small little black dots on that top bit in the clouds - they are people. So I guess we are at about 1300m where this shot is taken.

At the top

Kvikk Lunsj.

Our partial view

This was a good view.. from the other side it was a white haze of cloud 3m in front of us.

Kaffe først..

While we were at the top, we decided to have a coffee. (Norwegians drink the most coffee per capita in the world I think)

Get out of the way

It was like a traffic jam. And we met a guy from Adelaide up there. Really? Adelaide? Yes.

The top of the mountain

With the use of the 'macro' setting on the camera, I was able to capture the absolute highest point on the mountain. (Not the blurry guy, though on a technicality, if he stood up he would have been taller)

Coming down

Yeah.. I think Reidar was glad to come down.

A hazy money shot

You can see the fjord in this one.. The cloudy side of the mountain summit was actually by FAR the best view - looking down the fjord with the mountains coming up either side. This is also the steepest side of Slogen so the ground just falls away beneath you.

Me

Looking good, Paul.

Rani

It's not a strongman test, Rannveig.

Me again.

I tried going down the quick way (on the snow) and soon ended up on my arse. This was merely me trying to dry.

Couple

Don't turn around

Couple

What is wrong with me?

Yes!

The QUICK way down. sliding down the snow. Actually it was a bit slower than I thought. Still fun though.

Couple

This is what happens when there is a significant height disparity. Face crop.

Woah.. magic eye

Is it a mountain? Is it a pile of rocks?

Don't let your sun go down on me.

This was the valley we walk down to go home.. Probably around 8pm here.

Problems

We were all struggling at this point. And annoyingly, the summit of the mountain (in the background) was now almost free of clouds. Just a little cotton wool lingering.