We have officially conquered our first mountain in Norway! Well, conquered might actually be a bit of a strong word. What we did was more like crawl, gasping and panting up the most truely awe-inspiring mountain either of us have ever seen. It was truly a humbling day. 

Ullstinden is the mountain just a few kilometers down the road from us, and its a must-hike for any idiot who thinks he/she is good at hiking. We biked to the beach (I had to ride on the basket rack of Tyler’s bike because there aren’t enough bikes, this was its own kind of death-defying adventure), and then started our walk. It was a lovely walk around the mountain right along the sea, and after a mile or two you turn right. I say turn right because I don’t mean that the trail turns right. 

Now, I have complained in the past about how Canadians make their trails to go straight up and over mountains. I will never complain again. Norwegians just dont make trails. If you want to go to the top of the mountain, just go up. If you want to go to the sea, just go down. It sounds simple, but its not. It makes hiking extremely difficult and dangerous, and as I write this I have no skin from my knees down. 

  
Doesnt look too bad right? You’re wrong, and so was I. These rocks move, and they are covered in moss, so even if the rock you’re standing on doesnt move, your foot is going to. 

   
We all (Im sitting next to Alex, and Jeremy is off somewhere being part mountain-goat) look so carefree and happy because we had no idea what was coming. I wish I could tell photographic me to stop smiling, we will need the energy later. Here’s why.

  
I wish, oh how I wish, that this made it look more steep than it is. We were literally crawling up this on all fours. At one point I just sat down and started crying.

But then we made it to the false summit, which was almost enough for me.

  
But my sweet friends wouldn’t let me give up, and they were tempting me with sausages and bread and so I had to keep on climbing. FINALLY we reached the ALMOST summit. At this point I had decided that it might be easier to just throw myself off the edge of the cliff than climb back down that thing. But they had sausages and a fire. This is a good time to add in that we cooked our lunch on top of a mountain, and we cooked it by hanging the sausages from reindeer antlers that we found on our way up. 

  
This was our lunchtime view.

  
After one last ascent, which involved me saying a lot of things I now regret, we made it to the top. Now you can enjoy the view too. 

   
   
These two are lovely people.

  
It was pretty windy up there.

   

It was far too dangerous to take pictures on the return journey, but Ill just say that we all ended up sliding down the rocks a lot, Alex fell in the river and took Jeremy with her, Tyler hit himself across the face with a branch and I laughed so hard I might have peed a little. After 9 hours of SUPER INTENSE hiking, we made it home in time for dinner, wine, and most importantly, another light show.