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After getting closer and closer to the Folgefonna Icefield with each hike, we finally reached the glacier from Sundal at Fonnabu. The hike was challenging, at 8 total miles (12km) one-way from Dirona with an altitude gain of 4,767ft (1,453m), but very much worth the effort. We initially walked on the wide and beautifully maintained…

Sundal has been a major tourist destination since the mid 1800s, when people flocked to the area to ascend the Folgefonna icefield. Initially visitors walked up to the glacier and crossed with horses and sleighs, but by 1890 demand was sufficient to build a carriage road up to the plateau. 150 years later, reaching the…

From the summit of Tysnessata, the complex group of islands we could see along the northwest shore of Stord looked ideal for exploration by boat and tender. We found sheltered anchorage there in the Eldoy Islands, where we stayed for three nights, extensively explored the area by tender and also waiting out a small weather…

Gripnesvagen is a beautiful, nearly land-locked anchorage at the north end of Tysnes with a great view to the islands’s highest point, 2467-ft (752m) Tysnessata. From the east side of Tysnes we cruised through the narrow and scenic channel Lukksund to spend two nights at Gripnesvagen, where we toured the area by tender, hiked up…

We enjoyed the anchorage below Hovlandsnuten so much that we spent a third night there. After climbing Hovlandsnuten and Melderskin, we gave our hiking boots and legs a break on that final day and toured Husnesfjorden by tender. After passing through the scenic waterway Laukhammarsundet south of our anchorage, we crossed to the east side…

The summit of 4678-ft (1426m) Melderskin has a spectacular view east to the Folgefonna Icefield. The vistas west along the way up are impressive too, but the eastward scene is breathtaking, all the more so because it’s hidden from sight until the summit is reached. With an average grade of 26% over a 3-mile (4.8km)…

Hovlandsnuten soars 2,385ft (727m) nearly straight up along the east shore of the island Tysnes. On a beautiful, sunny day, we made a four-hour run from Etnefjorden and anchored directly below the mountain. A quick tender ride brought us ashore and we were at the top within two hours. The view isn’t apparent until the…

While we were rounding the world in Dirona, so too was the oil rig Polar Pioneer, including a stop at our home port of Seattle. The rig circumnavigated in 2014-2016, starting in Norway, then to Singapore and on to Alaska for an assignment, then to Seattle and back to Norway via South America. While in…

Matersfjorden is one of the wettest regions in the country and in 2005 received 8.8 inches (223 mm) of rainfall in 24 hours, the second highest ever recorded in Norway. The fjord also is home to the 230MW Blafalli Vik power station and some fabulous scenery, with 4,087ft (1,246m) Ulvanosa soaring above the waterway and…

The five-hour return hike to 3,300ft (1,005m) Mjelkhaug is a combination of two other hikes: a three-hour circular loop to Nordjfell, with a one-hour extension to Varhaugselet and an additional hour to reach Mjelkhaug. All three hikes have excellent views west into Hardangerfjorden, while from Mjelkhaug you also can see the Folgefonna glaciers. On another…