day 13 - We don't need to stinkin' guardrails

Chain clean, brakes adjusted, precious front tire at 100psi. A full night's rest, a big breakfast, and 2 ibuprophen. The bike feels like a million kroner and so do I. (Sadly, at current exchange rates that will only buy you a cup of coffee and a chocolate-free croissant.) A brief ferry ride across the channel and I'm ready for today's adventure under clear skies and shining sun.

Bike ride to priekestolenhutte: challenging but a lot of fun with a bridge over the lysefjord, a big climb through a pleasantly chilly and well-lit tunnel, a roller-coaster 75kph downhill, and another nasty climb to the hut. But today's bike was just a means to the end of a really cool hike.

preikestolen
Originally uploaded by wolftone.

Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock) is 604 meters directly above the fjord. And I mean directly. It's actually an overhang, so one bad step means a very long fall. Three precarious edges look all the way down the relatively straight and steep lysefjord ("light fjord") for awe-inspiring views of nearly luminous mountains. This is exactly what I had in mind when I said I wanted to hike a mountain above a fjord.

Despite a one-way two-hour journey over boulder slides, this is one of the most popular hikes in the country and I saw all sorts of people in all sorts of footwear on the way up. I started to be able to guess nationality from a distance solely by the shoes folks were wearing. (Myself, I wore tevas despite the prominent "no sandals" icon on the trailmap. Considering that said icon was right next to "no high heels" I figured I could do worse.) It was a very diverse crowd at the end doing a diverse range of sane or stupid things near the certain-death drop. I am shocked that there are no guardrails here, but it really would spoil the view and the local authorities claim that nobody has ever fallen.

Desperate to leave the crowd, I bushwhacked my way in search of the true summit 100m higher. Half an hour, one near-blister, and several semitechnical climbing moves later, I added my own stone to the enormous peak cairn. The views were largely the same, but the sense of personal accomplishment was much greater. (Or, at least it was until I had a Bad Eagle Scout moment and almost got lost on the reverse bushwhack down.)

Tonight's housing is at a DNT hut above the fjord with its own alpine lake. Any other country would put up a luxury hotel here, but I'm glad norway's values reserve this kind of spot for hostels and campgrounds. I am also unreasonably pleased that the hut will serve me a green salad for dinner. Let there be raw vegetables!