There were 3 reasons why we chose to travel to Stavanger, being trekkers we love for a bit if challenge during our trips. Stavanger had 3 adventure filled hikes which we were super thrilled about, one was the Pulpit Rock, then the Kjerag and the Florli 4444 however since we visited in Winters and due to harsh climate except for the Pulpit Rock we couldn't do the other two.
We decided to do the Pulpit Rock hike, we were picked from our hotel early morning and then we took a cruise to the dock then its quite a bit of a drive to the foothill of pulpit rock.
Since the entire hike route was filled with snow and ice, we were given spikes to help us walk through without slipping..
The Hike is a almost 2 to 3 hours climb and then another 2 hours to descent.
The hike is said to be a beginners level however the snow and ice make the climb quite difficult in some places.. There is one steep climb which is quite difficult but I would say that's due to the snow. On the way you come across a waterfall where you can fill your water bottles with the freezing cold water and it is definitely refreshing. The hike is very scenic at many points, there are views of frozen lakes and you can also view the city from the top at one point.
Like they always say the best views come after the hardest climb, it was absolutely true in this hike.. Once we reached the top the views were magical and breathtaking.. The views of the Fjords below were not only stunning but mystical and mesmerizing. If it were not for the freezing temperatures you could spend easily more than an hour just sitting and soaking in the beauty however since it was freezing cold it was not possible to push ourselves to stay more than 40mins tops.
We were lucky that we did not get any rain or snowfall during our hike or it would make the hike more difficult moreover we also happened to get lucky coz at a point the Sun just made its way from the dark clouds giving a subtle golden view.. Magic happens when you want it to happen like they say.
After taking end number of pictures and having some hot juice and cookies we decided to start our descent..
Every person has a different threshold and some find the climb difficult and some find the descent difficult. For me the decent always felt more difficult than the climb coz the descent puts quite a bit of pressure on the knees however hiking poles eases the pressure off quite a bit..
After 2 hours of descent we finally reached the foothill of the rock and entered the cafe for some hot soup, bread and Gloggs to get ourselves warmed up..
After a fabulous experience of the hike we ended the day driving back to the city..
The Pulpit Rock is a challenging hike yet so worth climbing up for the views like none other..
The company we chose to do our hike with was 'The Outdoor Life Norway' (www.outdoorlifenorway.com).
Would recommend to do your activities through them coz not only are they organized and well coordinated they are extremely friendly and helpful.
I was told that winter hikes are more peaceful and calmer coz during summers there are easily around thousand people hiking which makes it very difficult to click good pictures without your pictures getting photo bombed.
