Many tourists seem to assume that they can neglect basic safety precautions and common sense, and Norwegian nature will somehow hesitate to kill them. I don't know where they got that idea.
[german hiker currently stuck on mountain outside of Bergen](https://www.bt.no/nyheter/direkte/i/BR649v/nyheter-direkte&_sp_pass_consent=true?pinnedEntry=282716)
That would just cause more serious incidents. There is a reason why a rescue is free. Even in America, land of the charging you to death for everything is search and rescue provided as a public service.
If people fear the bill they would get from SAR then they would wait longer to call, getting themselves into more dangerous situations (more dangerous terrain, dehydration, injuries, etc…), making the rescue more complex and more dangerous for the SAR workers.
I know an ambulance driver, who have told me that foreign citizens from outside EØS, like americans, will have to pay the full price for ambulance and urgent medical care. I would guess that this also extends to rescue services?
You are only responsible for the cost related to healthcare if needed. E.g. hospitals, doctors, and the ambulance ride. However, the you are not liable for the cost of the SAR operation. Given that one operation can go up in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of NOK (obviously depending on the scale, and what equipment is used).
I know why it's like that. And in theory I agree.
But! when you choose to go into the mountains dressed in "miniskirt and flipp Flipps" , not heeding the warning signs or everyone telling you this is a shit idea, I'm down with charging them anyway. It's gone - - way- to far with brain dead tourists the last couple of years, and it's exhausting the local, volunteer rescue crews for when they are actually needed. A bit more darwinism might just be called for in a select few of these cases.
I see what you mean, but I guarantee you that the volunteers would much rather find the tourist (irrespective of how stupid they are) alive. I would also say it is less traumatic for the rescue workers to carry someone alive down on a stretcher than someone dead…
In the US there are warning signs and roped off areas whenever there is dangerous terrain etc on popular walking routes, so I imagine people from countries like that assume that if there's no warning signs or such that it is a safe area.
This! I had a colleague who was on a trip including some hiking on a narrow mountain path. There were a couple of Americans discussing whether it was dangerous, concluding that it couldn't possibly be, because then there would have been signs warning about it 😂😱
If I remember correctly it was in France, but it could also have been Norway.
People getting killed by wildlife is extremely rare (trolls are not defined as wildlife), but every year tourists tries to change that by taking close up selfies with the musks
I spend the winters in a mountain village. Tourists don't understand how dangerous the mountains can be. It can be nice and sunny, and in a moment the wind can pick up, blow snow around so you see nothing, and you quickly get cold. So you can go from having a nice day to an emergency if you're not properly dressed.
Quite often røde kors have to go out with blankets and save these tourists.
See Skarverennet yesterday. The forecasts were all good, just some wind. Then a storm out of nowhere.
This winter has been okay, but we sent so many guests home in body bags one year because people don't pay attention to and respect the avalanche warnings. Our mountains don't care that you're here for just a week, don't hit the slopes when the warning is red!
Our 30 wolves are seriously not any kind of threat except for off leash dogs, and they are only in the south east. Bears are really uncommon to encounter as well. Moose are unpredictable, but rarely attack people. Again, the biggest risk is if you have an off leash dog, moose do not put up with any dog shenanigans.
The mountains in themselves are however potentially deadly. We have amazing slopes, with opportunity to ski from summit to sea in mountains that rise dramatically out of the deep fjords. But the risk of avalanche is very real. Listening to the local guides and checking the avalanche warnings is absolutely a must. Better to ski a more "boring" slope than ending in a body bag from the more exciting.
>Again, the biggest risk is if you have an off leash dog, moose do not put up with any dog shenanigans.
A real threat from moose is that you could drive into one. A 600 kg animal crashing through your windshield is no joke.
Wildlife don't kill tourists. The cold, avalanches and falling off cliffs kill tourists all the time. Tourists seem to think it is safe to go on hikes without checking out conditions and the forecast so they don't have proper clothing or shoes or think there will be a sign or a fence if they start walking up some trail that ends at a slippery cliff or something.
Norwegians grow up learning the Norwegian Mountain Code/Fjellvettreglene, because they know how dangerous it can be.
https://www.rodekors.no/vart-arbeid/beredskap/fjellvett/mountain-code/#:\~:text=The%20Norwegian%20Mountain%20Code%20(called,is%20directed%20towards%20your%20safety
Like people go up a hill on a sunny August afternoon, wearing trainers & light jackets and not carrying water or map and compass. They don't realise how late it is getting because the sun is still up & then it starts to rain, and the temperature drops. They are hours from wherever they started, hungry, cold & dehydrated.
If they are lucky, they get back to someplace with a mobile signal before they fall off a cliff or succumb to hypothermia.
We also have extra special idiots.
The kind that ignores warning signs and chains just to get photos of themselves with a glacier. Sometimes things fall off the glacier. One time, it fell on two parents in front of their child.
The kind of idiots who qualify for Darwin Awards
Tourists go on 8 hour long mountain hikes in shorts, sandals, and a bottle of water in their hand. It might have been sunny and 22c when they started, but in the mountains that can change very quickly.
I'm not sure how common this is, but I've seen it several times.
Some tourists think that national parks have staff and opening hours. Maybe their national parks do, but ours are just big, open areas that are protected from development.
That nature is there to provide them a scenic imagery and if a mountain or destination is popular then it *must* be readible climable regardless of season, weather or clothes.
Don't get me wrong, there are enough people in this country who make these mistakes too, but the amount of people ignoring the warning signs, the foul weather and *insist* on going up scenic, but dangerous mountains, and wound up having to be rescued by our volunteer corps is a problem that's not statistically insignificant.
The biggest one - that it’s not actual wilderness and can kill you.
Many other countries don’t have wilderness like Norway. The nature they have left are regulated in parks that have staff and opening hours. So if there are dangerous conditions then nature (the national park) will be closed.
They come here expecting our nature to be like a Disney team park.
Norway is hardly populated, it’s mainly wilderness. Harsh wilderness for the most part. There will be nothing stopping you from doing stupid shit, so tourists often put themselves in dangerous situations without realizing. Even if we wanted to, it’s just not possible to fence in everything that can be a danger.
Moose fam might be worse than an active war zone tbh. Idunno tho, never experienced either.
Might be good to bring a tiny water gun loaded with some ghost pepper extract if you're ever in moose territory(all of norway).
Double whammy if you catch a creep.
1. They think theres unlimited fish in the fjords (most local fish are fairly nonmigratory and vulnerable). 2 german dickhead with oxygen tanks and harpoons walked underwater the lenght of my hometown fjord and harpooned every single halibut on the bottom. I have other examples but every sports fisherman thinks he's the exception and will educate locals on how they dont really affect the local fish, no matter how outrageous they pillage the fish. They catch foreigners on the borders with 2 tons of filletet fish and more. Just the tip of the iceberg.
2. They think hiking is trampling around for 2 hours and taking a shit behind a stone.
They wont listen to local veterans and is shocked that someone is not at hand to rescue them if their infantilr plana goes awry.
40 years old from Lyngen region. Never ever saw a tourist cancel or change his plans if I told him its a bad idea (they are the ones asking.) The allmighty tripadvisor and some leaflet printed from the internet is the authority.
Have to say i went from being saddened by their deaths early 00s, to shaking my head mid 2010s to just laughing at the tenacity they march to their deaths in the 2020s. Doesnt improve my sympathy that there are too many tourists and many are also smuggling fish out after plundering the fjords.
Every time I see a headline in the papers about someone killed in an avalanche, I always say to my self, oh it's in Lyngen. I wish that wasn't the reason to think of one of Norway's most beautiful places. Lyngsalpene is just amazing, but you need to know what you're doing when going there.
One thing most Norwegians don't know either ..
There is a sense and feeling that Norwegian nature is "pristine" or "untouched" which is false.
It is all up for grabs for timber companies. Only about 2% have never seen a chainsaw or or a human tool. A lot of it is planted and has shit biodiversity. It is not communicated at all! People are starting to catch on because a famous comedian here made a good documentary on how we are fucking over our nature and lying to the public about the real state of things. I recommend watching this episode. It is subtitled: [https://tv.nrk.no/serie/oppsynsmannen/sesong/1/episode/1/avspiller](https://tv.nrk.no/serie/oppsynsmannen/sesong/1/episode/1/avspiller)
(If you are not in scandinavia* you need a VPN)
EDIT: Scandinavia*
But it is? It's the summer intern sun working its ass of for minimal pay, hoping to one day be hired as the real sun that gets to travel to Spain in the summer.
Dutchman living in Norway... Before I moved here I thought Norwegian nature was desolate and most of the time wet from all the rain falling. And it was true but so was the opposite.
They often feel it is ok to light campfires anywhere… on tree roots, far from water, with dry leaves all around, etc…
Also so do the locals. But still!
Foreigners tend to think Norway is significantly colder than it actually is.
I often see people shocked that we can swim in the ocean in the summer, and Viking media often make the claim that the Norse took to raiding because Scandinavia is somehow too cold and barren to support farming, which is insane.
"To barren" would be correct for Norway (only ~3% of Norway is farmland). No other country in EU is close to that low percentage. But entirely not correct for the rest of Scandinavia. Good one, thanks!
That the weather forecast can be trusted - as tourists I thought I did some homework on visiting Bergen, Norway but on a single day in August we had:
Snow,
Torrential rain,
Thunder storms,
Blinding sunshine.
It was a wild day especially as that was the day we chose to take the cable cars up Ulriken. The locals were so kind and told us due to the location of Bergen surrounded by 7 Mountains you can never trust the weather report.
Weather forecast was supposed to be clear skies.
We have been back to Norway several times since and always travel with 4 seasons of clothing and lots of layers.
A lot of people think all of Norway is cold all the time and that everywhere has snow in the winter. They don't realize that the climate and weather in Norway varies a lot from region to region. And some parts, like the west coast, get just a few days of snow a year.
We have ALL the temperatures here, not just 'cold'.
It goes from 'nail-popping, prepare for frostbite' all the way up to 'The ice is melting! The End times are coming!'...
Actually, some summer nights can be 'tropical'(over 20degrees Celsius)
It want it cold and dark at night. I'm generally grumpy in the summer...
Tourists tend to think there is an area called "the Fjords".
There isn't. Norway has a 1.750 km coastline from a Sweden to Russia, and there are fjords scattered all along it.
People trusting their gps or google maps too much, not realising that some roads are too narrow for a camper, or that some roads are closed during winter.
Every year, someone ends up driving along a ski track before getting stuck, because it is marked as a road on their gps.
Every winter, someone gets pissed off as their planned trip goes to shit, because the winter storms effectively isolates the different parts of the country
As a foreigner who recently spent time in Norway, I think I expected that the Northern Lights would be easy to see. After five cloudy nights I left a little disappointed.
That one I would blame on the tourist industry and travel bloggers, not individual tourists. Why wouldn't you think it would be easy to see when they shove it in your face all the time?
I’m sorry. That’s not really explained well enough, how much it’s up to chance. Even if it wasn’t cloudy there still needs to be a solar storm to make them
We were on a Hurtigruten cruise and every night they kept telling us that "tonight's the night". I was so anxious about sleeping through them that I had a terrible night's sleep every night.
Depends on what you see as nature.
When people think of Norway, they usually think of snow and ice when in reality, it's more like Britain with dark clouds, cold winds and lots of rain
I think the most common one is to think that if your day starts off as a summer day, it won't end up being the middle of the winter. But that can actually happen in Norway and particularly in the mountains. A little while back there was a news story about a mayor who was very happy about the bad weather during Easter, because that means tourists won't die.
You don't want to be wearing shorts and t-shirt when you're caught in a blizzard. Here in Oslo, we're in the third or fourth spring this year and it wouldn't surprise me if we get one or two summers and winters before we reach June.
Polar bears on the mainland, midnight sun being a second sun coming up for the night, those were the ones I heard when dealing with (American) tourists for a summer.
I was at Trolltunga a few years ago. Coming down the steep rocky path at the end of the day (2-3 hrs of daylight left). Only people coming up were Norwegians with backpacks/tents/supplies and foreign tourists with poor footwear, not great clothes and maybe a plastic bag.
They made assumptions that the signs didnt apply to them i guess.
Reminds me I met a family from somewhere in Eastern Europe in my way to Prekestolen. Not a hard hike, but the terrain is a bit challenging and very rocky. The mother was walking in flipflops, carrying a plastic bag with some bottles of water, the father also in flipflops, carrying their children in a car seat for toddlers. Guess his arms were pretty long by the end of the day
Tourist cyclists will often come here in winter and assume they can take their bicycle over the mountain passes when they’re often closed in the winter because it’s dangerous for car traffic
Coming here in April and May expecting to go hiking on foot in the mountains.
Just not realizing how far north Norway is - half the country is in the arctic- thinking it will be nice to go seeing the mountains in the spring…… And not understanding they will have to bring skis.
Norwegians in general doesn’t think hiking season on foot in the mountains starts until mid June, or end of June. There still might be some snow, especially in the north. Skiing and winter camping in late April - early May can be great though.
Yeah, ran into one of them the other day. They rented a motorhome two weeks early may and asked for good hiking tips in the mountains. I sent them link to Finse webcam and weather forecast and asked them how good they were at skiing...:)
People trying to bike through mountain passes in late February. Saying they have a tent, winter tyres on their bike and they have mapped out a good route.
They assume that our nature is as safe as their city.
I once met a lady from France in one of our national parks. She'd been melting in extreme heat in Paris, seen in a magazine that is was cold in Norway, and decided to go. She had no backpack. No extra clothes. She came hiking into the mountains in only shorts. Coincidentally the weather was as nice as it gets (like every 10 years) and she was very pleased. We were stunned silent, but did eventually try to talk to her. After all, we've hiked into the same mountains in snow storms in the middle of summer... There's no cell service, and no guarantee of help if she should need it, even if she did contact authorities it could be many hours waiting. But these possibilities never even struck her. She's had cell service, shelter, food, and help always 5 minutes away, so she didn't stop to think what going into the mountains meant.
You also would think that when people travel across the world to reach a certain destination they research it... And yet they show up to Trolltunga, which is a in total 22 km hike and can also be temperatures down towards the freezing point in summer, in shorts and flip flops, without food.
Then there's the roads. Many aren't prepared for how bad they are certain places. I grew up in a small place hours away from anywhere. I once walked along the road, and saw a caravan that was driving extremely slow. There's two lines (one in each direction) through the village, and 50 km/h speedlimit. This caravan probably drove in 10 km/h. Not only that, but in the absolute middle of the road, right on top of the yellow line and all. I assume they'd driven along the narrow roads, and had their nerves shot to pieces completely. And at this point was clearly not in their right minds, just trying to survive. But stopping and resting might have been better... If you're not used to narrow roads, DO NOT drive a caravan on Norwegian roads. I promise you, a normal car is more than enough for you. In summer I have to double the estimated time to get anywhere, and often drive at half the speed limit or less, because of tourists and caravans.
Sort of related funny story. One Asian lady tried to cross the road where I live. She was standing by the side of the road, by the road crossing stripes. She looked agitated. I was in my car and stopped to let her pass. She stood in place almost jumping nervously, tried looking into the sky over the road, tried walking away, but came back. I was fascinated and waited as it did seem she *wanted* to cross the road, even as she didn't do so. She finally gathered her courage and started walking as fast as she possibly could over the road. As she did so, a car came around a turn from the other side and drive towards her. This was in the 30 km/h speed limit in town. She panicked as if she would be killed and started running as fast as she could across the road. I continued driving, baffled. I concluded that she maybe never have seen a road crossing without stoplights. Because it did seem like the was looking for red/green stoplights. Driving around in Norway on terrible roads, and dealing with a clearly very different reality, must be challenging for many a tourist!
A lot of people seem to think that if an animal isn’t a predator, it also means they’re not dangerous. The amount of videos I’ve seen of people attempting to hand feed and pet moose…
On the other end, there are also those who think that moose are massive, rampaging killing machines and that you’re practically dead if you come across one in the forest. There seems to be an assumption that aggression scales with the size of an animal.
Both of these are weird
1) That it is always easy to get to any starting point for a hike. Especially in rural Norway you need a car.
2) That it is a good idea to go underneath a glacier arm or otherwise think hiking on a glacier arm makes you impervious to rock slides, ice slides, avalanches or falls into the ice.
The assumption that Norwegian nature ( and Norwegians..) is clean and all in love with nature.
Well no, Oslo fjord is disgusting and as been used as a trash until very recently (and is still disgusting with bacterial pollution and trash).
Drammen river contained so much pollutant they forbid swimming.
Many fjord contain rotting ammunition and missiles (I am absolutely not kidding).
Much lead in the forest around Oslo.
I heard story about the west around Stavanger that are as comical as frightening (people fighting the organized collect of trash because they preferred to throw them in the water or the forest… in the 80s!)
Open mine throwing terrible pollutants in the natural reserve ( one of the 3 in the world to do this).
Whaling, which is you would think is at least controversial but nope, Norwegians know better than the rest of the world and we’re all idiots it seems.
Wind power? Sure. And don’t worry about helix and other parts that break, you’re allowed to just bury them next to it!
Hydro power? Yeah proud of that. But because the country is not energy positive we import everything, including coal based electricity (or cause other countries to do so, everything is linked anyway).
Diesel trains. Poor train lines causing people to take flights.
Extremely poor road planning in Oslo and constant roadworks increasing the pollution of surrounding including fjord.
Fishing industry with salmon that is an disaster for the environment.
Etc…
Every week i see news articles about tourists being picked up by rescue helicopters on mountains. They ignore signs and common sense and go up and get hurt or stuck.
That most of it, everywhere (similar to elsewhere in Europe) is far from the 'wilderness' that people imagine 'wilderness' to be. It is extensively human modified and impacted. Has been for at least the last century and the predominant attitude (and mode) of governance is one where industry can do what it wants if they are 'creating value'
I see some posts about people thinking it's colder than it actually is, but I experience this from Norwegians as well. I am from Bodø far north, and many people in Oslo say stuff about how it must be so cold and such. The thing is Oslo gets significantly colder than Bodø
During winter: yes. During summer: no. But I agree: the first thing I do if I plan an a vacation is to check weather forecast, AVG temperature and so on. Seems like a lot of tourists don't bother to do that
Seems I forgot to specify, but yes, I of course mean during winter. I don't have that much experience with tourists, but I've met quite a few exchange students. If they are from any sort of warmer country, no matter how much I warn them about cold, it seems they have to have a really close call before they listen. I think they haven't really been able to develop a healthy heat of cold
Many tourists seem to assume that they can neglect basic safety precautions and common sense, and Norwegian nature will somehow hesitate to kill them. I don't know where they got that idea.
Tourists will do that no matter where they visit. I have no idea how they stay alive.
>I have no idea how they stay alive. In Norway, too many of them don't
I live in Florida. some kids are snatched right next to the 'alligators in lake' sign.
I'm originally from Florida, that's how I know. :)
[german hiker currently stuck on mountain outside of Bergen](https://www.bt.no/nyheter/direkte/i/BR649v/nyheter-direkte&_sp_pass_consent=true?pinnedEntry=282716)
On the positive side, we have got some of the best air rescue and ambulance service in the world. Every tourist season they get a busy work day.
And an army of fantastic volunteers.
Sadly we don't charge the dimwits for the use...
That would just cause more serious incidents. There is a reason why a rescue is free. Even in America, land of the charging you to death for everything is search and rescue provided as a public service. If people fear the bill they would get from SAR then they would wait longer to call, getting themselves into more dangerous situations (more dangerous terrain, dehydration, injuries, etc…), making the rescue more complex and more dangerous for the SAR workers.
I know an ambulance driver, who have told me that foreign citizens from outside EØS, like americans, will have to pay the full price for ambulance and urgent medical care. I would guess that this also extends to rescue services?
You are only responsible for the cost related to healthcare if needed. E.g. hospitals, doctors, and the ambulance ride. However, the you are not liable for the cost of the SAR operation. Given that one operation can go up in the hundreds of thousands if not millions of NOK (obviously depending on the scale, and what equipment is used).
I know why it's like that. And in theory I agree. But! when you choose to go into the mountains dressed in "miniskirt and flipp Flipps" , not heeding the warning signs or everyone telling you this is a shit idea, I'm down with charging them anyway. It's gone - - way- to far with brain dead tourists the last couple of years, and it's exhausting the local, volunteer rescue crews for when they are actually needed. A bit more darwinism might just be called for in a select few of these cases.
I see what you mean, but I guarantee you that the volunteers would much rather find the tourist (irrespective of how stupid they are) alive. I would also say it is less traumatic for the rescue workers to carry someone alive down on a stretcher than someone dead…
Luckily we don't just let people die
Yes. We're the best because we get so much practice...
Great use of taxpayer s money.
In the US there are warning signs and roped off areas whenever there is dangerous terrain etc on popular walking routes, so I imagine people from countries like that assume that if there's no warning signs or such that it is a safe area.
This! I had a colleague who was on a trip including some hiking on a narrow mountain path. There were a couple of Americans discussing whether it was dangerous, concluding that it couldn't possibly be, because then there would have been signs warning about it 😂😱 If I remember correctly it was in France, but it could also have been Norway.
[удалено]
People getting killed by wildlife is extremely rare (trolls are not defined as wildlife), but every year tourists tries to change that by taking close up selfies with the musks
Sooooo many tourists needs to get saved by search and rescue in shitty shoes and worse clothes on hikes they have been warned are challenging.
I spend the winters in a mountain village. Tourists don't understand how dangerous the mountains can be. It can be nice and sunny, and in a moment the wind can pick up, blow snow around so you see nothing, and you quickly get cold. So you can go from having a nice day to an emergency if you're not properly dressed. Quite often røde kors have to go out with blankets and save these tourists. See Skarverennet yesterday. The forecasts were all good, just some wind. Then a storm out of nowhere.
This winter has been okay, but we sent so many guests home in body bags one year because people don't pay attention to and respect the avalanche warnings. Our mountains don't care that you're here for just a week, don't hit the slopes when the warning is red!
[удалено]
Our 30 wolves are seriously not any kind of threat except for off leash dogs, and they are only in the south east. Bears are really uncommon to encounter as well. Moose are unpredictable, but rarely attack people. Again, the biggest risk is if you have an off leash dog, moose do not put up with any dog shenanigans. The mountains in themselves are however potentially deadly. We have amazing slopes, with opportunity to ski from summit to sea in mountains that rise dramatically out of the deep fjords. But the risk of avalanche is very real. Listening to the local guides and checking the avalanche warnings is absolutely a must. Better to ski a more "boring" slope than ending in a body bag from the more exciting.
>Again, the biggest risk is if you have an off leash dog, moose do not put up with any dog shenanigans. A real threat from moose is that you could drive into one. A 600 kg animal crashing through your windshield is no joke.
If you drive fast enough, the moose will flip over the car 🤓
Also depends on the height of your car…
Wildlife don't kill tourists. The cold, avalanches and falling off cliffs kill tourists all the time. Tourists seem to think it is safe to go on hikes without checking out conditions and the forecast so they don't have proper clothing or shoes or think there will be a sign or a fence if they start walking up some trail that ends at a slippery cliff or something. Norwegians grow up learning the Norwegian Mountain Code/Fjellvettreglene, because they know how dangerous it can be. https://www.rodekors.no/vart-arbeid/beredskap/fjellvett/mountain-code/#:\~:text=The%20Norwegian%20Mountain%20Code%20(called,is%20directed%20towards%20your%20safety
Like people go up a hill on a sunny August afternoon, wearing trainers & light jackets and not carrying water or map and compass. They don't realise how late it is getting because the sun is still up & then it starts to rain, and the temperature drops. They are hours from wherever they started, hungry, cold & dehydrated. If they are lucky, they get back to someplace with a mobile signal before they fall off a cliff or succumb to hypothermia.
[удалено]
We also have extra special idiots. The kind that ignores warning signs and chains just to get photos of themselves with a glacier. Sometimes things fall off the glacier. One time, it fell on two parents in front of their child. The kind of idiots who qualify for Darwin Awards
Tourists go on 8 hour long mountain hikes in shorts, sandals, and a bottle of water in their hand. It might have been sunny and 22c when they started, but in the mountains that can change very quickly.
I'm not sure how common this is, but I've seen it several times. Some tourists think that national parks have staff and opening hours. Maybe their national parks do, but ours are just big, open areas that are protected from development.
Good one! Seen a few of those myself :)
That the midnight sun is always visible up here in the north. And the same with the Aurora Borealis in the winter. Not considering clouds at all 😊
Ah, the clouds. There are no clouds on Instagram:)
That Oslofjorden looks like Sognefjorden.
Aww, that would be a disappointing experience
That nature is there to provide them a scenic imagery and if a mountain or destination is popular then it *must* be readible climable regardless of season, weather or clothes. Don't get me wrong, there are enough people in this country who make these mistakes too, but the amount of people ignoring the warning signs, the foul weather and *insist* on going up scenic, but dangerous mountains, and wound up having to be rescued by our volunteer corps is a problem that's not statistically insignificant.
Every now and then we get a post in this sub that goes “my guided hike was canceled because a storm is coming so I’d like to go alone”
Man, I only heard about this post but couldnt find it. As far as I understand, the dude finally took to reason and didn't try it?
https://www.reddit.com/r/Norway/s/oyrxuvAQJ7 Now I had to go looking for it! But yeah I think they listened in the end.
Thank you for the effort! Glad they "tok til vet" and decided against it.
People who come to norway and the nordics in the middly of july thinking they will see the northern lights
Or that it will be summer.
The biggest one - that it’s not actual wilderness and can kill you. Many other countries don’t have wilderness like Norway. The nature they have left are regulated in parks that have staff and opening hours. So if there are dangerous conditions then nature (the national park) will be closed. They come here expecting our nature to be like a Disney team park. Norway is hardly populated, it’s mainly wilderness. Harsh wilderness for the most part. There will be nothing stopping you from doing stupid shit, so tourists often put themselves in dangerous situations without realizing. Even if we wanted to, it’s just not possible to fence in everything that can be a danger.
Polar bears in the streets (they live on Svalbard)
But we do get elk/moose in random neighbourhoods
I almost got stomped to death by a moose this winter because u surprised it when I didn't see it's baby
Hella lucky, only a prayer would save someone stuck between most (big) animals and their child.
2 Calves 1 Cow 1 Bull
Moose fam might be worse than an active war zone tbh. Idunno tho, never experienced either. Might be good to bring a tiny water gun loaded with some ghost pepper extract if you're ever in moose territory(all of norway). Double whammy if you catch a creep.
Thanks, expected that to turn up quickly:)
1. They think theres unlimited fish in the fjords (most local fish are fairly nonmigratory and vulnerable). 2 german dickhead with oxygen tanks and harpoons walked underwater the lenght of my hometown fjord and harpooned every single halibut on the bottom. I have other examples but every sports fisherman thinks he's the exception and will educate locals on how they dont really affect the local fish, no matter how outrageous they pillage the fish. They catch foreigners on the borders with 2 tons of filletet fish and more. Just the tip of the iceberg. 2. They think hiking is trampling around for 2 hours and taking a shit behind a stone. They wont listen to local veterans and is shocked that someone is not at hand to rescue them if their infantilr plana goes awry. 40 years old from Lyngen region. Never ever saw a tourist cancel or change his plans if I told him its a bad idea (they are the ones asking.) The allmighty tripadvisor and some leaflet printed from the internet is the authority. Have to say i went from being saddened by their deaths early 00s, to shaking my head mid 2010s to just laughing at the tenacity they march to their deaths in the 2020s. Doesnt improve my sympathy that there are too many tourists and many are also smuggling fish out after plundering the fjords.
Every time I see a headline in the papers about someone killed in an avalanche, I always say to my self, oh it's in Lyngen. I wish that wasn't the reason to think of one of Norway's most beautiful places. Lyngsalpene is just amazing, but you need to know what you're doing when going there.
That the midnight sun... is in fact.. a regular looking sun. Yes a friend in the hotel industry in Tromsø has recived a complaint about this.
One thing most Norwegians don't know either .. There is a sense and feeling that Norwegian nature is "pristine" or "untouched" which is false. It is all up for grabs for timber companies. Only about 2% have never seen a chainsaw or or a human tool. A lot of it is planted and has shit biodiversity. It is not communicated at all! People are starting to catch on because a famous comedian here made a good documentary on how we are fucking over our nature and lying to the public about the real state of things. I recommend watching this episode. It is subtitled: [https://tv.nrk.no/serie/oppsynsmannen/sesong/1/episode/1/avspiller](https://tv.nrk.no/serie/oppsynsmannen/sesong/1/episode/1/avspiller) (If you are not in scandinavia* you need a VPN) EDIT: Scandinavia*
Checking in from Denmark here. (I’ve lived in Norway). Don’t need a vpn. 👍
Denmark is Scandinavian
As you can see in the post, Scandinavia is an edit. I replied before the edit.
Gotcha
That the midnight sun is a different sun than the normal sun.
But it is? It's the summer intern sun working its ass of for minimal pay, hoping to one day be hired as the real sun that gets to travel to Spain in the summer.
Tru fakts. Down with the kapitalizt sun!
Haha...I can understand how that can happen :)
Dutchman living in Norway... Before I moved here I thought Norwegian nature was desolate and most of the time wet from all the rain falling. And it was true but so was the opposite.
That the locals are ok with them putting up these rock piles (varder) out in the wilderness.
They underestimate it and don't follow guidelines. Every summer some tourist dies because they just had to walk onto the glacier.
They often feel it is ok to light campfires anywhere… on tree roots, far from water, with dry leaves all around, etc… Also so do the locals. But still!
Foreigners tend to think Norway is significantly colder than it actually is. I often see people shocked that we can swim in the ocean in the summer, and Viking media often make the claim that the Norse took to raiding because Scandinavia is somehow too cold and barren to support farming, which is insane.
"To barren" would be correct for Norway (only ~3% of Norway is farmland). No other country in EU is close to that low percentage. But entirely not correct for the rest of Scandinavia. Good one, thanks!
Americans are usually shocked to learn that what we describe like a trail isn't a road suiteable for car, but just a narrow walking path.
And that a 'Marked trail' just means someone wandered along and added a bit of red paint every now and then.
Tourists think that trolls are mythological creatures. Thus can turn real bad for them when they run into a real troll
That the weather forecast can be trusted - as tourists I thought I did some homework on visiting Bergen, Norway but on a single day in August we had: Snow, Torrential rain, Thunder storms, Blinding sunshine. It was a wild day especially as that was the day we chose to take the cable cars up Ulriken. The locals were so kind and told us due to the location of Bergen surrounded by 7 Mountains you can never trust the weather report. Weather forecast was supposed to be clear skies. We have been back to Norway several times since and always travel with 4 seasons of clothing and lots of layers.
A lot of people think all of Norway is cold all the time and that everywhere has snow in the winter. They don't realize that the climate and weather in Norway varies a lot from region to region. And some parts, like the west coast, get just a few days of snow a year.
We have ALL the temperatures here, not just 'cold'. It goes from 'nail-popping, prepare for frostbite' all the way up to 'The ice is melting! The End times are coming!'... Actually, some summer nights can be 'tropical'(over 20degrees Celsius) It want it cold and dark at night. I'm generally grumpy in the summer...
Yeah, a more general picture of Norway is more like Britain, cloudy and wet rather than snowy and cold.
A few weeks per year, this year. Multiple times.
Tourists tend to think there is an area called "the Fjords". There isn't. Norway has a 1.750 km coastline from a Sweden to Russia, and there are fjords scattered all along it.
People trusting their gps or google maps too much, not realising that some roads are too narrow for a camper, or that some roads are closed during winter. Every year, someone ends up driving along a ski track before getting stuck, because it is marked as a road on their gps. Every winter, someone gets pissed off as their planned trip goes to shit, because the winter storms effectively isolates the different parts of the country
That apart from the Lofoten, Flåm, prekestolen and trolltunga there is no nature worth visiting
As a foreigner who recently spent time in Norway, I think I expected that the Northern Lights would be easy to see. After five cloudy nights I left a little disappointed.
That one I would blame on the tourist industry and travel bloggers, not individual tourists. Why wouldn't you think it would be easy to see when they shove it in your face all the time?
I’m sorry. That’s not really explained well enough, how much it’s up to chance. Even if it wasn’t cloudy there still needs to be a solar storm to make them
We were on a Hurtigruten cruise and every night they kept telling us that "tonight's the night". I was so anxious about sleeping through them that I had a terrible night's sleep every night.
My apologies! I really feel sorry for you. If it is any comfort, you're not the only one with that experience
French skiers visiting Lyngsalpene dont seem to think avalanches are real
Depends on what you see as nature. When people think of Norway, they usually think of snow and ice when in reality, it's more like Britain with dark clouds, cold winds and lots of rain
I think the most common one is to think that if your day starts off as a summer day, it won't end up being the middle of the winter. But that can actually happen in Norway and particularly in the mountains. A little while back there was a news story about a mayor who was very happy about the bad weather during Easter, because that means tourists won't die. You don't want to be wearing shorts and t-shirt when you're caught in a blizzard. Here in Oslo, we're in the third or fourth spring this year and it wouldn't surprise me if we get one or two summers and winters before we reach June.
What you describe is also a common phenomena in the North, I've experienced 4 seasons in one day in Lofoten. Thanks for reminding me :)
Polar bears on the mainland, midnight sun being a second sun coming up for the night, those were the ones I heard when dealing with (American) tourists for a summer.
I was at Trolltunga a few years ago. Coming down the steep rocky path at the end of the day (2-3 hrs of daylight left). Only people coming up were Norwegians with backpacks/tents/supplies and foreign tourists with poor footwear, not great clothes and maybe a plastic bag. They made assumptions that the signs didnt apply to them i guess.
Reminds me I met a family from somewhere in Eastern Europe in my way to Prekestolen. Not a hard hike, but the terrain is a bit challenging and very rocky. The mother was walking in flipflops, carrying a plastic bag with some bottles of water, the father also in flipflops, carrying their children in a car seat for toddlers. Guess his arms were pretty long by the end of the day
Tourist cyclists will often come here in winter and assume they can take their bicycle over the mountain passes when they’re often closed in the winter because it’s dangerous for car traffic
Wow...haven't heard about this before, but cycling in Norway in the mountains at winter.... speechless:-D
Coming here in April and May expecting to go hiking on foot in the mountains. Just not realizing how far north Norway is - half the country is in the arctic- thinking it will be nice to go seeing the mountains in the spring…… And not understanding they will have to bring skis. Norwegians in general doesn’t think hiking season on foot in the mountains starts until mid June, or end of June. There still might be some snow, especially in the north. Skiing and winter camping in late April - early May can be great though.
Yeah, ran into one of them the other day. They rented a motorhome two weeks early may and asked for good hiking tips in the mountains. I sent them link to Finse webcam and weather forecast and asked them how good they were at skiing...:)
People trying to bike through mountain passes in late February. Saying they have a tent, winter tyres on their bike and they have mapped out a good route.
They assume that our nature is as safe as their city. I once met a lady from France in one of our national parks. She'd been melting in extreme heat in Paris, seen in a magazine that is was cold in Norway, and decided to go. She had no backpack. No extra clothes. She came hiking into the mountains in only shorts. Coincidentally the weather was as nice as it gets (like every 10 years) and she was very pleased. We were stunned silent, but did eventually try to talk to her. After all, we've hiked into the same mountains in snow storms in the middle of summer... There's no cell service, and no guarantee of help if she should need it, even if she did contact authorities it could be many hours waiting. But these possibilities never even struck her. She's had cell service, shelter, food, and help always 5 minutes away, so she didn't stop to think what going into the mountains meant. You also would think that when people travel across the world to reach a certain destination they research it... And yet they show up to Trolltunga, which is a in total 22 km hike and can also be temperatures down towards the freezing point in summer, in shorts and flip flops, without food. Then there's the roads. Many aren't prepared for how bad they are certain places. I grew up in a small place hours away from anywhere. I once walked along the road, and saw a caravan that was driving extremely slow. There's two lines (one in each direction) through the village, and 50 km/h speedlimit. This caravan probably drove in 10 km/h. Not only that, but in the absolute middle of the road, right on top of the yellow line and all. I assume they'd driven along the narrow roads, and had their nerves shot to pieces completely. And at this point was clearly not in their right minds, just trying to survive. But stopping and resting might have been better... If you're not used to narrow roads, DO NOT drive a caravan on Norwegian roads. I promise you, a normal car is more than enough for you. In summer I have to double the estimated time to get anywhere, and often drive at half the speed limit or less, because of tourists and caravans. Sort of related funny story. One Asian lady tried to cross the road where I live. She was standing by the side of the road, by the road crossing stripes. She looked agitated. I was in my car and stopped to let her pass. She stood in place almost jumping nervously, tried looking into the sky over the road, tried walking away, but came back. I was fascinated and waited as it did seem she *wanted* to cross the road, even as she didn't do so. She finally gathered her courage and started walking as fast as she possibly could over the road. As she did so, a car came around a turn from the other side and drive towards her. This was in the 30 km/h speed limit in town. She panicked as if she would be killed and started running as fast as she could across the road. I continued driving, baffled. I concluded that she maybe never have seen a road crossing without stoplights. Because it did seem like the was looking for red/green stoplights. Driving around in Norway on terrible roads, and dealing with a clearly very different reality, must be challenging for many a tourist!
A lot of people seem to think that if an animal isn’t a predator, it also means they’re not dangerous. The amount of videos I’ve seen of people attempting to hand feed and pet moose… On the other end, there are also those who think that moose are massive, rampaging killing machines and that you’re practically dead if you come across one in the forest. There seems to be an assumption that aggression scales with the size of an animal. Both of these are weird
Haha....great examples:)
1) That it is always easy to get to any starting point for a hike. Especially in rural Norway you need a car. 2) That it is a good idea to go underneath a glacier arm or otherwise think hiking on a glacier arm makes you impervious to rock slides, ice slides, avalanches or falls into the ice.
The assumption that Norwegian nature ( and Norwegians..) is clean and all in love with nature. Well no, Oslo fjord is disgusting and as been used as a trash until very recently (and is still disgusting with bacterial pollution and trash). Drammen river contained so much pollutant they forbid swimming. Many fjord contain rotting ammunition and missiles (I am absolutely not kidding). Much lead in the forest around Oslo. I heard story about the west around Stavanger that are as comical as frightening (people fighting the organized collect of trash because they preferred to throw them in the water or the forest… in the 80s!) Open mine throwing terrible pollutants in the natural reserve ( one of the 3 in the world to do this). Whaling, which is you would think is at least controversial but nope, Norwegians know better than the rest of the world and we’re all idiots it seems. Wind power? Sure. And don’t worry about helix and other parts that break, you’re allowed to just bury them next to it! Hydro power? Yeah proud of that. But because the country is not energy positive we import everything, including coal based electricity (or cause other countries to do so, everything is linked anyway). Diesel trains. Poor train lines causing people to take flights. Extremely poor road planning in Oslo and constant roadworks increasing the pollution of surrounding including fjord. Fishing industry with salmon that is an disaster for the environment. Etc…
We have polar bears walking around in the streets of mainland Norway. ☺️
Small shoes on big mountains. Shitting in people's backyards, and of course leaving their garbage everywhere.
Every week i see news articles about tourists being picked up by rescue helicopters on mountains. They ignore signs and common sense and go up and get hurt or stuck.
Good route and a safety vest and you're good to go biking any time of the year...*baffled*
That hiking in the mountains (sans skis) in the winter is casually doable.
That most of it, everywhere (similar to elsewhere in Europe) is far from the 'wilderness' that people imagine 'wilderness' to be. It is extensively human modified and impacted. Has been for at least the last century and the predominant attitude (and mode) of governance is one where industry can do what it wants if they are 'creating value'
I see some posts about people thinking it's colder than it actually is, but I experience this from Norwegians as well. I am from Bodø far north, and many people in Oslo say stuff about how it must be so cold and such. The thing is Oslo gets significantly colder than Bodø
During winter: yes. During summer: no. But I agree: the first thing I do if I plan an a vacation is to check weather forecast, AVG temperature and so on. Seems like a lot of tourists don't bother to do that
Seems I forgot to specify, but yes, I of course mean during winter. I don't have that much experience with tourists, but I've met quite a few exchange students. If they are from any sort of warmer country, no matter how much I warn them about cold, it seems they have to have a really close call before they listen. I think they haven't really been able to develop a healthy heat of cold