Bushcraft Norway -Tips Needed-

[BushCraftNorway]

Hello everyone,

Im 22 years old and from The Netherlands. We don't have any active bushcraft forums so i'll ask some stuff around here. I hope that's fine :]

Well, I have some experience with wild camping. Been to France twice and ate mostly of the land and caught my own fish. Did this with a good friend of mine. But it did cost me allot of mental energy staying with someone 24/7. So my plan is to go by myself to Norway around March/April.

I have lots of money so I can buy the gear I need. No problem with that one. The main issue/question is:

Is it possible to go to Norway in the end of the Winter all by myself with little experience? I've been an outdoors kid my whole life.
I'm planning to go by plane and take a bus to a remote location and hike some around and enjoy nature. And I love fishing and cooking them myself. So yeh, what are the opinions? Is this do-able? Or is this a crazy idea? And dangerous?
And what will be the best place to go? I was thinking south since the temperature is more moderate. Like 6 degrees average in April.

Ill go well prepared with good quality gear...

All tips are welcome!

Thanks for reading!

Greetings,

Luke

 

[MartinK9]

Hi Luke.

Careful of averages. A group of us went first week in may a few years ago and and it got down to -10C on a couple of nights.

Look around the Forum for peoples experiences and trip reports there are several.

 

[Janne]

Yes, it is a crazy and dangerous idea.

March/ April?

Could be -20 C, 1.5 meters of hard frozen snow, or +5 C, 1.5 meters of thawing, wet snow, or even 15 C, flowers, sunshine!

In my opinion early spring is the worst time of the year as the weather is incredibly unpredictable then.

My suggestion is you go in summer for a week or two. Southern Norway, Sweden or Finland. If you want a bit more extreme environment, go to the North.

I have just returned from mour yearly summer holiday in the Norwegian arctic. We were lucky, it had just stopped raining, after 2.5 months of rain. Still, it was between +8 and +12 C, winds between 6-10 m/s

Please do not get upset about my post.
I am Swedish, have close to 50 years of experience being in the arctic and sub arctic environment, during all seasons.

 

[Leshy]

This is a fantastic idea and from personal experience I can tell you will fall in love with the place .
Norway has some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen.

As someone said here , be careful of averaged temperature forecasts...

This year they've had one of the best/warmest spring weather in a long time but also a really tough winter .

So it changes .

And keep in mind that "having lots of money" and all the gear, doesn't always mean success.

Good luck !

I will ask Arya if she could chime in.
Extremely busy at the moment but she will have good advice being local and experienced.

Cheers

 

[BushCraftNorway]

Yes, it is a crazy and dangerous idea.

March/ April?

Could be -20 C, 1.5 meters of hard frozen snow, or +5 C, 1.5 meters of thawing, wet snow, or even 15 C, flowers, sunshine!

In my opinion early spring is the worst time of the year as the weather is incredibly unpredictable then.

My suggestion is you go in summer for a week or two. Southern Norway, Sweden or Finland. If you want a bit more extreme environment, go to the North.

I have just returned from mour yearly summer holiday in the Norwegian arctic. We were lucky, it had just stopped raining, after 2.5 months of rain. Still, it was between +8 and +12 C, winds between 6-10 m/s

Please do not get upset about my post.
I am Swedish, have close to 50 years of experience being in the arctic and sub arctic environment, during all seasons.

Hey, thanks for the answer. You seem very experienced indeed. I'd like to go in the summer aswell but I need to wait such a long time. Unfortunately because of my current health issues [burn-out] im not able to go this summer. Maybe it's a better idea to just buy my ticket a week before I go so I kinda now what the weather would be like. Thanks!

 

[BushCraftNorway]

This is a fantastic idea and from personal experience I can tell you will fall in love with the place .
Norway has some of the most beautiful landscapes I've ever seen.

As someone said here , be careful of averaged temperature forecasts...

This year they've had one of the best/warmest spring weather in a long time but also a really tough winter .

So it changes .

And keep in mind that "having lots of money" and all the gear, doesn't always mean success.

Good luck !

I will ask Arya if she could chime in.
Extremely busy at the moment but she will have good advice being local and experienced.

Cheers

Thank you aswell. And I know good gear is kinda pointless when someone has no clue what they're doing. But what I was trying to say was that I will go well prepared. Not with some cheap Chinese stuff like I did when I went to French. So many things broke or stopped working

 

[Janne]

Wait until June. Get quality equipment now, and use and abuse it now.
So you learn how to use it, break and replace the bad stuff.

I understand you want to trek, so need to minimize the equipment to bare neccessities, get the best and lightest.

Buy quality, no matter how much it costs. Quality lasts, you can use it for decades. Plus, you do not want a broken piece of essential equipment 100 kilometers from the closest store.

Ever put up a tent or shelter in a storm?
Compass and map skills?
Self first aid?
Make and apply a stabilizing ‘crutch’ for a broken leg?

You need to buy a pair of quality footwear, break them in properly. You need to walk with a backpack slightly heavier than the ‘real backpack’ and get your body used to it.

For two weeks in nature - about 20 kilos, maximum 25.
You will lose weight.

 

[Janne]

Remember, practice is fun, and well practiced you will enjoy your trip more!

 

[C_Claycomb]

I don't have Janne's experience, but I have been in Norway, south Telemark area in the summer, and southern Sweden in April. In Sweden we were in Ed, Dalsland and reckoned that in that year the season was at least a month behind the southern half of England. The last of the lake ice had thawed just the week before and the water was still very cold. In Norway I learned that it can be difficult for a low-lander to train enough to be comfortable in steep terrain with few or rough trails. All three of us Brits had trouble keeping up with the young Norwegian who we were visiting. It wasn't just fitness, it was all the stabilising muscles needed to carry a pack when you are moving over really uneven ground. It was the skill of knowing what your feet are doing without watching them all the time.

May or June are better times to go in that the weather should be kinder and you will have had more good weather at home to get out on training hikes. It is hard to be motivated at home if it is cold or rainy, even if that is the best time to train.

Norway does have a network of mountain huts that you can use, but they are expensive. I know that I would usually prefer my hammock and tarp than a hut, but it might be good to have a hard roof for a night or so at the half way point of your trip.

I would not recommend a solo trip, rather I would try to find a way of going with a friend and not expend so much mental energy, whether that is separate shelters, or taking time to go do separate things for a day. If you go by yourself you should really figure out how you would deal with an accident if it happened to you. Falls and messed up legs and ankles are rather easy. If no one knows where you are, or when you will be there, no one will know where to look if you don't show up.

 

[Billy-o]

I It was the skill of knowing what your feet are doing without watching them all the time.
.

This might just be the skill of being twenty-five

 

[Arya]

Someone said my name?

First of all, I think it's great that you want to visit Norway and explore it by foot! I hope you get the time of your life

Second, I agree with the others here. March-April are fickle, unpredictable months. If you really want to go these months you should consider having access to cabins instead of sleeping outside, just in case.
We can't have you turning into a popsicle during the night! And miserable people rarely have a good time.
If you want to test your gear, then an option might be setting up camp outside the cabin, so that if you should discover that your gear doesn't live up to the expectations you can seek shelter safely in the cabin the rest of the night

You might also have to be comfortable with skis or snowshoes if you want to hike at this time of year.
But as Janne says, it might also me 15 degrees with the ocasional flower here and there. Maybe even Queen bees buzzing around. We never know, so have a plan B (C and D...)

Good luck Mister!