Hiking Norway in early May 2010

We are two intermediate fit hikers that arrive on the ferry in Oslo by Car for 8 days in Norway. We really want to do hiking and peaks, but I fear that there is too much snow in early May in Jotunheimen. It seems more like a destination for skiing at that time of year.

Does anyone have any suggestions on an itinery where we could perhaps visit two places where we can camp or hostel and have great access to mountain hiking? To visit a glacier would be tops, and also be near the sea as well, but any suggestions are really welcome :)

Thanks in advance!

Edited by: rossy_campbell

Basically all mountain areas will have some amount of snow in may. Often quite wet snow to, and quite a bit of flooding from the snow melt.

May is a increasingly a popular season to do many peaks, using skis or some ski/hiking/crampon/climbing combination.

For pure hiking you are mostly restricted to the lowland forests and the coastal areas. Preikestolen (Stavanger area) and the mountains in Bergen are almost completely clear now, the forests around Oslo should normally be fine by then and the western half of the Lofoten islands may be ok.

This year is really more complicated than usual because the snow is not in the usual places. Jotunheimen really has less snow than usual, but still more than enough for May. Oslo has more snow than usual.

Play around with http://senorge.no/ to check snow depth at various dates this and previous years.

Glaciers will be kind of pointless since they will be covered by some amount of snow, and difficult to distinguish from the snow covered terrain around. Walks at the outermost west coast will be fine, best weather of the year.

Thanks steinarh,

I appreciate that you took time to comment - we'll investigate peaks around Stavanger and Bergen then, keeping near the coast and fjords out west. It all looks really beautiful there and I like climbs that are from sea level as they can be really spectacular :) I've been in Oslo a couple of times on business, but the rest of Norway looks amazing, and a bit like Scotland (where I'm from) with so much over the treeline, but everything is just more!

Personally I intend to come around Finnes for a ski tour for 6 days, beginning of May, do you know if the snow will be OK, not too wet ?

Summøre! Lot of relatively easy treks with nice views and also a fair chance of some snow-free peaks. Get on the night bus from Oslo to Ålesund / Ørsta and get in touch with the tourist information there.

One other thing I came to think about was that since I'm driving from the ferry to e.g. Bergen and perhaps some mountain roads, is it enough to use my summer tires on the car? I won't need snow chains in the boot in the second week of May will I?

I picture driving Oslo->Bergen->Stavanger, and staying perhaps a little higher than sea level at the camp sites and hostels that have walking access to the mountains and fjords.

Thanks!

#3: Which Finnes? Perhaps you mean Finnsnes? Expect the wet snow limit, and no snow limit to climb by anything from 0m to 100m per week, this really depends on the weather.

#4: Yeah, except that Sunnmøre has extreme amounts of snow this year. Currently 2m+ many places in the mountains.

#5: The police just "strongly encouraged" using winter tires for mountain roads now, even though we are a week past the official change date for southern Norway. But in the second week of may, 4 weeks from now, the roads will be absolutely fine and you should use summer tires.

Note that some winter closed mountain roads will still be closed until late may. This is not because of conditions of the road itself, but the danger of avalanches from the mountains over the road.

Edited by: steinarh

I am sorry, mails are mixing up :

We get some information about some dificulties to rent equipment, it seems that is still possible in a hotel at Finse, do you think the snow will be good early may in that area ?

Thanks

Finse is a good place to look for snow in late May, the quality is hard to forecast though - that could be down to temperature and (type(s) of) precipitation over the 3-4 day period before you arrive, both things that are nigh on impossible to forecast one month ahead when we're speaking western Norway.

I'd still chip in for Sunnmøre - while it's been a snowy winter, the latest hydrologist forecast showed 50 % less snow than usual (in Tafjordfjella / Tafjorden mountains). You should also have a fair chance of snow-free conditions in the 800 - 1200 metres-range further out, like in Ørsta, for instance, and some of those peaks have a pretty nice views-per-height-climbed ratio. Hooking up with local knowledge would be neccessary though.