Norway Camp and Car
Drove 2-3 hours west of Oslo. To a small ski resort. Parked the car and walked into the wild. Set up camp Saturday evening. During the night it started raining and the rain turned to sleet and froze on my tent.
Sunday morning was cold.
The small lake I used for water was frozen over. Just a small layer of ice. But soon the sun started to warm everything. Sunday was a wonderful day with intermittent sun and pretty good weather overall. But then the sleet and snow started again.
Monday morning the ground was covered in a thin layer of snow. I was still in the same spot with my camp as I had set it up Saturday.
Most of the morning I sat in my tent, drinking coffee and debating what to do. I had to catch a flight Tuesday so I’d have to be back in Oslo by noon. Which meant I would have to get up very early or I would have to move my camp closer to the car.
I decided to do none of that. Instead I went for a day hike. Sunday I had visited the highest mountain near me (which was tough going at the top due to snow in the mountains from winter still). Now I went for the second highest mountain — which looked a lot easier.
I had a good day out. It snowed pretty much the entire day. But the ground was not super cold so the snow did not build up much. It was cold but better than rain. I stumbled upon a day shelter while hiking up to the top of the mountain and decided to have lunch there when I came back down. Was great to have a bit of shelter from the barrage of snow.
When I got back to my tent I packed it down and walked out to the car. I had received an upgrade on the rental car so I had a big station wagon that I could easily sleep in. I drove the car a bit further up the mountain and away from the ski resort to a secluded parking spot. And then I slept in the car. Electric cars are wonderful for this — you have a big battery so you can have the air condition running without worrying about depleting the battery.
I had a good nights rest and woke up to a cold but clear morning. Drank some coffee with sunshine hitting my face. Peaceful.
Drove to Oslo and flew home.
Great quick trip.
Gear
- Much of the same as my trip to Tresticklan National Park
- It is a heavy setup which means I can’t hike that far with it. But it is really great for stuff like this — a camp in the wild. Especially when the weather is tough.
Notes
Trip purpose / goal
The goal of this trip was to see if I can go to the mountains with just one or two days off work. I long for more trips to the mountains and so maybe this is a way to do it.
I’d say overall it went very well in that regard. The conditions were fairly tough and so three nights out is actually more than enough.
I had 2 full days in the mountains. And 2 “half days” — one afternoon and one morning. This only required 2 days off work (Monday and Tuesday). The trip becomes rather expensive in terms of money spent per day (due to transport and hotel costs). But every day off work is also “expensive”.
Stove camping
Cold days in the mountains like these really make me want to try out camping with a stove. The tent did a wonderful job and I did not really get that cold or wet. But still. With rain or snow for days it becomes damp and cold. I think a stove would be max cozy. But it would also be a lot more stuff to carry.