Trolltunga - The Troll's Tongue
If you are on social media, chances are you’ve seen a picture of Trolltunga at least once. It’s become one of the most popular hikes in Norway. Trolltunga translates to “Troll’s Tongue” which describes the rock formation you make your way to at the very end of the hike. It juts out horizontally from the side of mountain, over 700m above the lake below. While it’s become quite a popular hike, the hike is rather difficult. It is 20km, 22km, or 28km in length, depending on what route you take to hike to the top.
Sharleen first saw a picture of Trolltunga with her mom while reading an online travel article, and right away Sharleen was interested in this hike and wanted to learn more about it. After some reading and research about how challenging it is, the recommendation to hike with a guide until mid-June, and where it was located, we had basically written off this hike and hadn’t made plans to hike it during our time in Norway. It really wasn’t until we hiked Preikestolen and Kjerag that we thought about doing Trolltunga. If we’re honest, during the Kjerag hike, Sharleen had even said “I’m so glad we are doing this hike and not Trolltunga, there is no way I could do that one.” But after finishing hiking Kjerag, and checking the route reports for Trolltunga, we decided maybe it wouldn’t be that crazy of a thing to at least try. What’s the worst that could happen?
Our next Airbnb was less than an hour to the start of the hike, and the route was in better than typical conditions for early June due to the warm weather Norway had been having. This meant that there was significantly less snow, so hiking boots could be worn without snowshoes, and no guides were required. This had basically convinced us to give it a go and we made our plans to hike Trolltunga. Although, even the morning of the hike, as our alarm went off at 4:30am, we both were just kind of hoping the other person would say we shouldn’t do it so we could crawl back into bed. It really wasn’t until we had our hiking shoes on and took the first steps of the hike that we were fully committed!
It’s described as a challenging and strenuous hike, meant for experienced hikers. This is mainly due to the long distance of the hike, as well as some parts of the terrain.
To start the hike, and make it up to the mountain valley, you have three options:
1. There is a 1km path that has you walk straight up the side of a mountain. We didn’t take this route, but from everything we had read, it is the most challenging part of the hike due to its steep incline and the climbing of boulders. Some reviews we had read set the incline at around 40-50%. By choosing this start, the total hike to Trolltunga is 22km round trip.
2. A road was built a few years ago that allowed only 30 cars to park at the top of the mountain, and essentially eliminates the first “most challenging” part of the hike. The road is rather steep, sometimes with an incline of 16%, and is partially gravelled and partially paved. There are a total of 17 hairpin turns, and the total distance is 4km. There were a lot of warnings about this road and what type of vehicles should attempt to drive it. In order to use the road you need to pay a fee of close to $100 CAD, and the attendant will determine if your vehicle is eligible to go up the road. Once the 30 spots are taken, they close the road, so its important to get here as soon as it opens (6:00 am) if this is an option you are looking to take. By driving to the top, you eliminate the first 1km, which has your total hiking distance at 20km.
3. Due to the new road, hikers have the option to walk up the road instead to the super steep 1km. The road is 4km long, but is less challenging than the 1km pathway, and takes roughly the same amount of time. It is recommended that people take this path for an easier climb and descent. Due to its added distance, this route would make your total hiking distance 28km long.
View on the way up to the top of the mountain valley.
We had decided we would look at driving the road to the top of the valley, and start the hike from there. But we both agreed that if the road looked too intense for our small Renault, we would park at the bottom and walk up the road. Sharleen was definitely hoping the road would be fine, as she has a strong distain for any “extra” uphill activities, and the thought of starting a hike before 6 am, just to add 8 extra kilometers to the hike, was less than appealing. Darrell wasn’t too interested in driving a road we had read so many warnings for, especially with our little front wheel drive, so he was hoping we would park at the bottom and walk up. Well, Darrell got his way. When we pulled into the parking lot at 5:45am, a sign was on the road saying the upper lot was closed due to road maintenance until mid-June. It was kind of nice to have the decision made for us, but that meant we had a long 28km journey ahead of us!
We chose to walk up the road and save some energy for the rest of the hike and the second climb. The first 4km are nothing exciting. You are walking up a road, counting down all 17 hairpin turns until you get to the top. It was surprisingly quite easy to walk up, and we made it up in about an hour. On the last hairpin turn there is a sign directing you onto the pathway were all hikers start the rest of the climb to Trolltunga.
The next 1.5km is flat and takes you through the beautiful mountain valley. Surprisingly, there are a lot of cabins up here, but they blend in with the surroundings. We seem to be big suckers for scenery with rocks and big boulders, bright green grass, mountains, deep blue skies, and any kind of water. So we really loved walking through this area. From here you walk towards the right, and you can see a steep climb ahead that takes you between two mountains.
The second climb is quite long and steep. Not as steep as the climbs we did for Kjerag, but long and steady. The section is about 1.5km long, and we took it nice and slow with frequent breaks, just like the climbs in our other two hikes. Up to this point the pathway was very quiet, as we had been walking by ourselves the whole way up the road, and through the flat area. During this section we could look back down the hill and across the valley to see a bunch of people making there way to the climb. In the end, we were passed by probably close to 20 eager hikers. Even some trail runners, who were literally just running past us climbing the side of the mountain (they are just crazy!). At the top of the climb you walk through your first snow section, which is messy but kind of fun for the beginning of June! Then you reach the 7km sign, which is a huge relief. It’s the halfway point to Trolltunga!
From the elevation sign that is in the parking lot, the next 7km looked as though they were flat with little incline until you reach the Troll’s Tongue. We found that not to be the case, and were actually quite surprised with how hilly the terrain was. There were no steep inclines, but there were little climbs throughout the next 7km, and some larger hills as well. We also felt that we were constantly going uphill, which made us excited for these to be downhill portions on the return back.
Once you pass the 7km sign, you walk through some beautiful areas. You pass a few small lakes, more beautiful meadows, streams, and glacial potholes – you almost feel like you are walking on a different planet! The whole time you have mountaintops around you, and the beautiful Ringedalsvatnet Lake below. The scenery of this hike was similar to Kjerag, but we both thought that Kjerag was a more beautiful hike.
By around the 10km mark, we realized just how long this hike was. The scenery, although quite beautiful, became less of a priority as we found ourselves more focused on counting down the remaining kilometers. At this point we had seen a handful of campers setting up and taking down their sites, and a few had passed us returning back to the parking lot. Trolltunga is a very popular camping trail, and it would have been really great to break up the hike over two or more days.
We reached the sign that said 1km remaining and actually had no idea where Trolltunga would be! It’s relatively flat, so we could see 1km into the distance, but still couldn’t see the Troll’s Tongue. It wasn’t until we reach the final 100m until we could see people sitting down enjoying lunch with amazing view of Trolltunga and the valley.
The area at the top is relatively small. But there must have been close to 30 people at the top and it was spacious enough for everyone to have lunch and take a break. For the first time on any of our hikes, there was a line up to have your picture taken on the rock formation. But it wasn’t long at all – maybe 10 minutes. There are terrible stories we had read on other blog posts where people would need to wait 2 to 4 hours to have their picture taken! That just shows how popular this hike has become. Sharleen read a statistic after our hike that said prior to 2010, less than 800 people would hike Trolltunga each year. But since then, an estimate 80,000 people hike the trail each year, and keep in mind, the trail is only open from mid-March to mid-October.
We both had our pictures taken, and took time to take pictures from all the angles. For us this hike definitely had a different feel to it. Maybe it was because we had already been wowed by the views of Preikestolen, or that this was a long hike and we were only half way done, or there were more people than we had hoped, but we definitely seemed less excited than we thought we would have been. But we made it to the top!
Walking out and onto the protruding stone was surprisingly easy. It looks way scarier in photos than when you are on it. This is probably because it’s slightly angled up, so you can’t really see over the ledge, it’s kind of like walking up a really wide ramp. However, people do some crazy things up there! We opted to be safe and just pose standing up a few feet from the edge.
We found these wooden walking sticks at the very beginning of our hike, and decided to take them along. They ended up being SUPER helpful! Up until this point we didn't understand why so many hikers had walking poles, but now we definitely get it!
After our break at the top we were feeling good. We had refuelled with a bite to eat, and so we started our hike back to the car. The walk back was again quite hilly (up and down) right up until the 7km mark. We both were excited to get to the 7km mark because that meant it was mostly downhill from there. Little did we know that downhill after 21km of hiking is less than enjoyable! In fact, sometimes it felt like this was the hardest part of the hike! The very last 4km walking downhill on a road somehow ended up being some of the most difficult. By this point we were both fatigued, sore, had random aching body parts, with a couple blisters tossed in. In hindsight, it would have been a good idea to change our socks at the top, as they got a little wet from the numerous snow paths. We both had taken a spare set, and this would have most likely prevented any blisters.
We could not wait to get to the car! It helped to know we weren’t alone. Everyone making their way down looked like they were in some sort of pain. We almost felt bad for the hikers passing us on their way up to camp for the night. The walking dead hobbling down the hill probably made them a little nervous for the adventure they were about to face! It’s probably safe to say we had never been so excited to see our car and take off our hiking shoes. We made it to the car just after 5:00pm, which put our total time at 11 hours and 15 minutes. This also included our 45 min break at the top. Overall, we were happy with our time, as the posted time range is between 10-12 hours.
When reflecting on this hike, we both agreed that it was beautiful and the look out point was quite fascinating. It was also the least scary of all of our hikes; even walking onto the ledge was way easier than any of our other hiking poses. However, the distance for us was just too long, and made it less enjoyable than our other hikes. More often than not, we were counting down waiting for it to be over, instead of enjoying every minute. But, we are so happy we did it, and would definitely recommend this hike for those who are able to tackle it! It is one of the longest hikes we have ever done, and that made us feel proud – and sore.
