UKH

Booked a spontaneous trip to Norway late Sept. Neither of us have been before. Looking for recommendations on areas/ walks to do. We'll have all our own kit for camping etc.

Any top tips for stuff to take or look out for that might differ from other venues. 

Experienced, well kitted out couple.Flying to and from Oslo. 

Do you plan to hire a car or use public transport?

What kind of terrain are you looking at hiking through do you plan to purely camp or perhaps use some huts too?
 

I'm not very familiar with southern Norway but can recommend going to Jotunheimen for hiking in the autumn. Plenty of ridge traverses and scenic hiking to do in the area round Spiterstulen, Leirvassbu and Krossbu!

Alternatively there is Rondane which requires a little less time driving from Oslo but it's basically lots of loose rock there.

Or you could book a flight up to Tromsø from Oslo and go hiking there. Much less driving to get to the mountains and friendlier people

Check out DNT the Norwegian Trekking Association, way-marked trails and a network of mountain huts.

Hi Charlie. The hiking season is pretty short up there with most of the public transport options/busses finished at the end of August. If you get the train to Otta you can start exploring the surrounding ranges from there. It is a great hub from which to explore. I visited a couple of times a couple of years ago and I can heartily recommend the place. Be aware that it very expensive and if you are going to eat in restaurants etc perhaps it would be prohibitively so. I travelled pretty much self sufficiently and camped and carried food etc so I don't have experience of the huts but they offer a great alternative. Here is a link to my two trips and I hope you will find some useful information/ideas there.

Stephen 

https://howlingmist.blogspot.com/2016/07/a-10-day-trip-to-norway.html

https://howlingmist.blogspot.com/2016/09/norway-return-exploring-jotunheime...

Definitely check out accommodation availability as a LOT of places shut at the end of august (as we found in the first week of September in the Rondane). The Otta campsite at Selversket was shut but you could call a number and get the keycode for one of the self-catering huts and leave money in an envelope when you leave . I think you can send off to the DNT for a key for the unguardianed huts & winter rooms.

Anyhow, we did 8 days in the Rondane which was great.  All huts bar the Rondvassbu hut were virtually empty. Mountains were a nice mix of UK-type mountains, hardly any people, and euro-type marked paths - you could go off-path like you would in the UK in a lot of places, yet had signposts and good marked paths like in the alps. we stuck to the paths

Temps were good for walking, but we had ice on the inside of the fly one morning, heavy rain on one day, and rime on the high summit cairns e.g. Rondeslottet, so you do need to be prepared for that. Happy to share our route if you want inspiration.

One Norwegian chap we got chatting to said the Breiheimen area was the best for walking in the country so you may want to consider that.  We also took the scenic train from Otta to Andalsnes under the Troll wall, a good option for an easy 'end of trip' day (Otta's a lot lower altitude than the Rondane itself so you don't want to be going up and down).

Rondane 'vegetation line' was at ~1400m with bare rock above. bare rock was essentially giant piles of bouldermat-sized slate chunks on the mountains themselves, so quite 'steppy'.

Here's some Jotunheim ridges inspiration: https://www.ukhillwalking.com/articles/destinations/the_ridges_of_norways_j...

We're talking about hiring a camper now. So some shorter trips based from the road?

Guess we're just looking for some nice mountainous walks, maybe some ridge lines like some others have suggested. Really open to recommendations really.

 Loads of awesome advice, inspiration and ideas. Just what I was after. Thanks so much all who have contributed! ????