At the end of October, I headed to Gaustatoppen with the intention of hiking it with a large group of friends - the original seven minus Angus, plus 8 others! Gaustatoppen is only a few hours away from Oslo, so the drive wasn't too bad on the Friday evening. It's actually the highest mountain in the county of Telemark here, and on a good day you're supposed to be able to see a sixth of Norway's land when you're standing at the top!
We stayed in a really lovely cabin right next to the mountain which had an incredible view over the nearby valley, plus its own little sauna and a jacuzzi bath. Dinner on the first night was spaghetti (because really, what else are you meant to eat on a cabin trip in Norway?) and on the Saturday we made pizza, which was incredibly easy to do and also super delicious.
So anyway, on Saturday we first had a little drive around the area. Like most of Norway, it's lovely - lakes and trees and mountains and waterfalls around every corner! And plenty of opportunities for nice photos. :)
Then, we headed for the hike. I'm sad to say that this is not nearly as interesting a story as Kjerag turned out to be. I didn't find it too difficult at all - it's a relatively gentle incline up the mountain, so it seemed extremely easy compared to the last mountain I climbed! My legs are not so long or experienced that I can go as fast as some of the others in our group did, but I was enjoying trudging onwards for a while at my own lolloping pace.
However, the difficulty came when the snow started to pile up. You can see from the photos that the weather was pretty nice up to a point, and then the snow and the wind came, and the trail just became more snow than rocks (and little bits of ice flying in to your face). I didn't have any trouble with this in my hiking boots, but one of the girls only had trainers and was struggling to not slip around in those (she had a nasty fall), so we got about half way up the mountain and then the two of us turned around and headed back down. We ended up walking for something like 1.5-2 hours in total and still had a lovely time! Then once we were back at the bottom, I had to hijack a stranger's phone to get a lift back to the cabin from a couple of our group who had decided not to do the hike. So, we headed back (and straight for the sauna) and then took on the duty of getting the pizzas ready. Most of the others made it to the top of Gaustatoppen (1883m up!), but due to the weather, they actually didn't see any kind of view at all - just clouds, and a whole lot of snow!
Saturday evening was a lot of fun. The pizzas were awesome and we basically had enough to feed a small army, the wine was flowing enough to make Jesus proud - and fun games such as 'reverse limbo' and 'The Werewolf' were played. It was undoubtedly one of my favourite evenings during my time so far in Oslo, and further confirmation that it is really the people you meet rather than where you are that makes something special. This was the last time that I got to see so many of my favourite people in one place, and it was lovely! I will forever feel blessed to have had the opportunity to meet them all.
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