Voss · Vestland · Norway

qupkene

Route numbers, wet-weather gear and the software that runs on the hill.

qupkene is a handle Sindre Vestli has used online for years, and now it is a place to put the things that do not fit in a photo caption. Distances that are actually measured rather than repeated. Timings that account for the descent. Notes on why a jacket that has not leaked still leaves you wet.

There is no affiliate marketing here and nothing is sponsored. Everything is written to be checked: where a number came from, and where it might be wrong.

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Hikes

Eight routes in detail, with the logistics that decide whether the day works.

• Besseggen

  A ridge between two lakes at different heights and, more famously, different colours.

• Preikestolen

  The shortest of the famous routes, and by a distance the busiest.

• Trolltunga

  The length of this walk is decided in a car park, before you start.

• Romsdalseggen

  A traverse rather than a summit, and the transport runs one way only.

• Kjeragbolten

  Three steep climbs, three descents, and a rock you do not have to stand on.

• Galdhopiggen

  The highest point in Northern Europe, by one of two routes with very different requirements.

• Reinebringen

  Roughly 1500 stone steps. That is the whole route.

• Gaustatoppen

  A big view, a field of boulders, and a funicular built by the military.

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Gear

How the equipment behaves, rather than which model to buy.

• Rain shells

  Most shell failures are not leaks. They are the membrane doing exactly what it was designed to do, badly.

• Boots for wet ground

  In ground this wet, the question is not whether water gets in. It is how fast it gets out.

• Layering

  Three layers, one job each. The failure mode is almost always moisture you produced yourself.

• Packs

  A well-loaded pack is carried by your legs. A badly loaded one is carried by your shoulders.

• Navigation kit

  The phone is not the problem. Having only the phone is the problem.

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Tech

Satellite positioning, file formats, offline maps, and what cold does to a battery. Mostly written because the outdoor internet gets this consistently wrong.

• How GNSS works

  Your receiver does not talk to anything. It listens, and solves for time.

• The GPX file format

  It is XML. Once you know the three data types, every import problem becomes obvious.

• Satellite messengers

  The network is usually the same. What differs is the response chain behind the button.

• Batteries in the cold

  Your phone did not run out of charge. It ran out of the ability to deliver it.

• Altitude measurement

  One device measures pressure, the other measures geometry. They are answering different questions.

• Watch, handheld or phone

  Three devices that do the same job and fail in completely different ways.

• Offline maps for Norway

  Positioning works without a signal. The map is the part you have to plan for.

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Norway

The rules and infrastructure that the route pages assume you already know.

• The right to roam

  A genuinely broad right, with a small number of conditions that people routinely get wrong.

• DNT cabins

  A network of huts run largely on trust, in three quite different varieties.

• Weather forecasts

  The forecast for the village is not the forecast for the place you are going.

• Getting around

  Getting there is usually solvable. Getting back is what needs checking first.

• The mountain code

  Nine rules that read as obvious and are broken constantly.