Preikestolen (Pulpit Rock)

June 12, 2012

Today we woke up early because John planned to take us up to Preikestolen/Pulpit Rock on Lysefjorden, one of the top tourist attractions in Norway.  We caught the 8:30 am ferry from Stavanger to Jørpeland, about a forty minute ride.  John makes this crossing once or twice a week, so he read the paper while we explored the boat and took a few pictures.

Before arriving in Stavanger, we had looked at taking a tourist boat into Lysefjorden to Pulpit Rock, but the cost seemed very high– approximately 400 NOK (or $65+ CDN) each.

From Jørpeland, it was a 19 km drive to the parking lot at the bottom of the climb.  Although parking was expensive, the cost of the ferry ride and parking totaled only 226 NOK, a much better option than the tourist boat!  Being the spoiled wife that I am, J carried our backpack full of water, extra clothes, sunglasses, etc.  The hike up to Pulpit Rock is about 12 km round trip, according to John.

The first part of the hike is very steep, but has some gravel and soil mixed with rock, making the climb a little easier.  After about ten to fifteen minutes of hard, steep climbing, you reach an easier grade for another five to ten minutes.  There are even a few downhill sections.  For the first half of the climb, we were mostly surrounded by deciduous forest, but there were a few openings where there was a good view of the valley and the fjord.

Towards the middle of the hike, there is a long steep rocky section which was definitively the hardest part of the climb.  It is about 20 minutes of grueling uphill climbing on big rocks, with no soil cover.

The trail was marked by red “T”s spray-painted onto the rocks, but we often followed it loosely, just trying to find the best way up.  As we neared the top, there were a few mountain lakes, which J thought were probably formed by rainwater collection.  John said his children used to swim in them in the summer.

At the top of the climb, many parts spread out into flat wide rocky plains where we could roam to the edge for a photo or make quick progress towards the top.

As we approached Pulpit Rock, there was one section where we had to put our feet on a very narrow ledge, and hug the rock for a few careful steps.  This was probably the most dangerous part of the climb, but it feels easy after all the exhausting uphill hiking.  After the ledge it is only a short walk to Pulpit Rock.  The hike is supposed to take about two hours, but it took us about an hour and a half.

Pulpit Rock provides a spectacular view of Lysefjorden from 600 m up, but it was somewhat clouded by fog when we arrived, so many of our photos show this haze.  It did start to clear before we headed down, but by that time, many more tourists had arrived.

When we arrived, there were probably 20 tourists there ahead of us.  They were sitting in small groups enjoying the view, eating a snack or taking pictures.  I even saw a few drinking wine, which despite the early hour, seemed appropriate, given the dazzling surroundings.  J is pretty terrified of heights, so for him, this climb was a real victory over his fears, but he was pretty tense for the entire hour or so we spent at the top.  Despite his fears, he indulged me and took pictures as I knelt on the edge, stood near the edge, and put my head over the edge.

We ate a lunch of sandwiches and chocolate, in a place chosen by John and J, well-back from the edge.

On our walk back down, John knew of an alternate trail that no one uses, but it didn’t start until the bottom of the most difficult and steep rocky section.  Because the number of people on the trail had increased astronomically, we thought it would be nice to take the quieter route.  Before we turned off though, we ran into our New Zealand friends from the ferry!  We took a quick picture with them before they continued up to the top.

The quieter path was a great choice.  We didn’t meet any other climbers, and the path was much more forested and soil-covered than the main route, which it joined only a few hundred metres from the end of the path.  The alternate route didn’t seem to slow us down at all.

We took a few minutes near the trail lodge to change our shirts, which were drenched with sweat, before getting back in the car.  We took the scenic route home, stopping first at a cabin that had belonged to John’s father and now belongs to his younger brother.  My father spent a whole summer here when he was thirteen.

On our way back to Stavanger, we took a different, shorter ferry across the water and drove back through Sandnes, the closest town to Stavanger.  The scenery during the ferry ride was stunning.

Back at the house we had an early dinner of cod, cabbage, potatoes and carrots, then took a few hours for downtime to recover from the long hike.  Around 7:30 pm, Karen accompanied us to the grocery store to fulfill a request of mine to take a look.  I always like to see the set-up of the grocery store and the prices for staple foods.  This grocery had a very large selection of cheeses and meats, but a much smaller produce section than the average grocery store in Canada.  Most things were significantly more expensive than they would be in Canada.  From the store, we walked to John and Karen’s son Tore’s house.  The plan was to meet Tore, then pick up Thomas a few houses away, and walk to town for a drink.  Karen agreed to babysit Tore’s son to accommodate this plan.

At Thomas’ house, we met his wife and then walked to town.  Since I am not the biggest fish eater, I was starving by the time we got to the pub (Cafe Sting) and we ordered some chicken wings along with our drinks.  We got to know Tore and Thomas over several drinks.  Because it was a weeknight, by the time we left around midnight, we were the very last people in the restaurant.  During our stay, Thomas was constantly interrupted by friends and business connections, but we still had a really good visit.  Tore said that it is always like that when you are with Thomas!  We walked back to John and Karen’s house and went to bed.