hike the Aurland Trail, Norway

I cannot find much information on-line regarding the Aurland Trail in Norway.

I understand 30,000 hikers a year walk sections between Vassbygdi, Geiteryggen and further toward Hallingdal on an old East – West trail.

kz7.jpgI enjoyed a well written trip report by Kathleen Hill Zichy. Part of her Travels with Wally series. (Wally is a Kiwi hiking guide.)

The hikes were spectacular and strenuous. Wally provided encouragement and a bit of light-hearted humor in an accent both charming and perplexing. Certain expressions had to be repeated several times before I could decipher them. He frequently powered out on the trail and then looped back to find the rest of us. As I was the least experienced hiker, Wally was elected by his co-leaders to the position of my guardian. He did so in a gentle and unobtrusive way that did not mark me as a quivering novice but gave me a little boost in confidence when I was facing a major drop-off or was lagging behind on the downhill.

I had never seen so much rock. We scrambled, stumbled, mumbled, crawled, held on by our fingernails as we slid over cliffs on the British Route, desperately clutching the famous cable-and hoping fervently that our insurance was paid up. At the bottom of the cliff after that hair-raising slide, we were greeted by a small party of Norwegian hikers. An older woman in that group with hair pulled back and greying at the temples asked me what I thought of my descent down the cable. “There’s nothing like that in Manhattan,” I replied. “We usually take the elevator.”

“This is the toughest hiking trail in all of Norway,”
she informed me. Her statement was confirmed within minutes when we encountered a man with his head wrapped in bloody bandages, being led to the end of the trail by two fellow backpackers. …

The Long Trip Home: Archives

Unfortunately, the natural environment there has been much affected by hydroelectric development:

… the great waterfalls in the Aurlandsdalen have been silenced. The standing waves, spray and mist from the rapids and waterfalls has been substantially reduced. Due to diversion through tunnels, the water level in the river gorges is drastically reduced; dams restrain the thundering inferno that filled the gorges before the development. There are impacts beyond the loss of scenic beauty as well. The Aurlandselvi river is no longer one of the finest salmon rivers in Norway. Farmers no longer drive cattle, pigs and goats to spend the summer at Østerbø and Stemberdalen. The pack horses, formerly a common sight in the valley, as Jon Fimreite and Knut Sønnerheim among others transported provisions and supplies to Steinbergdalshytta and Østerbø, have become part of history.

Aurlandsdalen has become like the most of the other valleys, characterized by traffic, tourists and gradual urbanisation. Only the remote Nesbø-Vassbygdi region remains mostly undisturbed, if one ignores the strong reduction in the water flow in the Aurlandselvi and the visible stretch of highway between Berdalstunnellen (Berdal tunnel) and Nesbøtunnellen (Nesbø tunnel) visible in the hillside from the path at Heimrebø.

Power development and environmental impacts – Wikipedia

There are plenty of pretty pictures tagged Aurland on flickr. Here’s my favourite:

aurland-town.jpg

Aurland downtown – larger original on flickrTom (Aurland resident)

related post – WOW – Aurland Lookout, Norway

2 Replies to “hike the Aurland Trail, Norway”

  1. Following the hike on the Aurland trail, I returned to Norway and spent a week hiking in the spectacular countryside near the village of Jolster (the “o” in Jolster has a line through it). I was accompanied by the highly professional and accomplished glacier guide Jarle Helgheim. Although the world is changing, areas of Norway remain untouched and profoundly beautiful. Jolster is a very small village, and Norwegian village life made an indelible impression on me. Coming from the urban energy and anonymity of Manhattan, I found it disconcerting that everyone in this small village, including the cashier in the local supermarket, knew who I was and what I why I was buying provisions for the week. Jolster has a beauty that takes possession of one’s soul, and I lose my breath just thinking about it. I stayed on a farm at the very end of the valley, returning from my hikes late in the evening in the full light of Norwegian summer.
    Needless to say, there were one or two nights that I fell into bed too whipped to boil my spaghetti.

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