Trolltunga is one of those iconic places that often is chosen to represent the natural beauty of Norway. Trolltunga is a rock cliff that juts out horizontally about 700 metres (2,300 ft) above Lake Ringedalsvatnet. Its name means Troll’s Tongue.
We were told that it was too early in the season to hike Trolltunga (we were there in late May). Additionally, since they had a late Winter that year and a lot of snow, they weren’t sure when the trail would be safe for hikers to pass through. After some more digging, we found out that it was possible to snowshoe Trolltunga; however we didn’t have snowshoes. We drove to Odda anyway to see if we could get lucky renting a pair. Snowshoeing isn’t a very popular activity in Norway and is much more popular with foreigners/tourists since Norwegians prefer cross country skiing. We weren’t able to find any stores in Odda to rent snowshoes from, so instead last minute (literally at 10PM the night before) we booked a tour with Trolltunga Active for a Trolltunga Winter/Spring tour, which includes rentals for snowshoes or skis.
Odda is a sleepy town on the far end of the Hardangerfjord. Nearly everything was closed when we visited, but it was still very scenic.
The Trolltunga hike is around 22 km (approx. 13.7 miles). Including us and our guide, our group was 9 people total. The hike starts with a steep ascent up a set of rock stairs.
Once we got to the top, the climate immediately changed, and the entire trail was covered in knee deep snow. We put on our snowshoes and continued on.
The weather got progressively worse as we hiked. It became whiteout conditions and extremely cold.
By the time we got to Trolltunga, it began to snow. It’s almost comical how little visibility we had. We couldn’t see the lake below, but it was still an amazing snowshoeing adventure.
On our way back, we sped down a couple of the mountains on our butts like a slide and had a great laugh.
I’m so glad we went with Trolltunga Active. With the deep snow, the trail would have been very difficult to find on our own.
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