6/15/16

Group: Monica, Alejandra, Shawn & Emily

The Folgefonna Glacier hike is a MUST DO of any trip to the Bergen area.  The trip is a couple of hours from Bergen by car (including the ferry ride) and it is on the way to Trolltrunga, which works perfectly if you pair the two day hikes together.  Plus, who could ever pass up the opportunity to hike on a glacier??

We took an early ferry and the morning sun was just gorgeous on the water.

The day hiking package includes a small group guide (our group had six people in it), boots, crampons, a helmet, an ice pick, and all the necessary harness gear.  We arrived at 10am and our trusty glacier guide Anders helped us to get prepped in all of the equipment (sorry for changing boots sizes four different times, Anders!).

The hut is located at the bottom of a ski resort mountain, so we started the day by hiking up a side trail on the mountain.  It wasn’t too tough of a hike, but we were glad that we brought cold weather gear because it was (obviously) pretty chilly, despite it being the middle of summer.

After we reached the top of the mountain, we walked over to a cliff that had THE MOST AMAZING VIEW, and it was 100% the most stunning place I have ever eaten lunch.  Ever.

We finished off our lunch with the traditional Norwegian hiking chocolate that you enjoy once you reach the summit (but we also ate it the rest of the trip too…and for a week when we got back to NY).

After lunch (and nine million pictures, of course) we hiked to the top of the glacier and strapped on our tie gear so we could walk over the top of the glacier itself.

It was so windy that we could lean back and still be standing straight up.

Shawn testing out how glacier water tastes.

After several hours of walking around, we headed back to the warming hut the best way we knew how – by sliding down the mountain on our backsides!  We had permanent smiles our on faces all day and it was my favorite trip of the week 🙂