Map
Complete map of the journey, courtesy of UMAP.
Daily distances and elevation gain
Week 1
- 2022-07-02 d01: Tromsø → Lyngseidet; 96 km, 916 m
- 2022-07-03 d02: Lyngseidet → Langfjordbotn; 157 km, 2169 m
- 2022-07-04 d03: Langfjordbotn → Skaidi; 175 km, 1977 m
- 2022-07-05 d04: Skaidi → Honningsvåg; 185 km, 2216 m
- 2022-07-06 d05: Static: Honningsvåg → Honningsvåg; 17 km, 98 m
- 2022-07-07 d06: Boat: Honningsvåg → Finnsnes – rest day
- 2022-07-08 d07: Finnsnes → Sortland; 180 km, 1680 m
Week 2
- 2022-07-09 d08: Sortland → Hov; 158 km, 1091 m
- 2022-07-10 d09: Hov → Bodø; 214 km, 1118 m
- 2022-07-11 d10: Bodø → Åmnes; 152 km, 1903 m
- 2022-07-12 d11: Åmnes → Nesna; 176 km, 2127 m
- 2022-07-13 d12: Nesna → Brønnøysund; 131 km, 1089 m
- 2022-07-14 d13: Brønnøysund → Kolvereid; 135 km, 1365 m
- 2022-07-15 d14: Kolvereid → Osen; 142 km, 1727 m
Week 3
- 2022-07-16 d15: Osen → Trondheim; 147 km, 2131 m
- 2022-07-17 d16: Trondheim → Skei; 132 km, 1216 m
- 2022-07-18 d17: Skei → Åndalsnes; 175 km, 2120 m
- 2022-07-19 d18: Åndalsnes → Heggebottvatnet; 163 km, 3436 m
- 2022-07-20 d19: Heggebottvatnet → Skjolden; 117 km, 1693 m
- 2022-07-21 d20: Skjolden → Dragsvik; 118 km, 1238 m
- 2022-07-22 d21: Dragsvik → Rutledal; 155 km, 1515 m
Week 4
- 2022-07-23 d22: Rutledal → Fusa; 152 km, 2324 m
- 2022-07-24 d23: Fusa → Odda; 149 km, 1760 m
- 2022-07-25 d24: Odda → Hovden; 127 km, 2618 m
- 2022-07-26 d25: Hovden → Eidstod; 137 km, 1266 m
- 2022-07-27 d26: Eidstod → Langesund; 127 km, 1893 m
Summary
I completed the trip in 26 days, of which 24 were spent riding, one day waiting for the Hurtigrute boat, and another on that boat relaxing.
All in all the total distance traveled, ferries mostly excluded adds up to 3500 km, that is 140 km/d – almost 145 km if we exclude the outlier day when I was mostly relaxing in Honningsvåg. That is significantly longer than my daily target of 130 km because the endless sun of the the Arctic allowed for much longer daily segments.
Daily distances varied from 116 km the day after the hellish Trollstigen / Geiranger / Dalsnibba trifecta (-1.22 σ), to 185 km on Nordkapp day (+1.37 σ).
As for elevation gain, I accumulated a sizeable total of 42588 m, which is almost as much as the 44478 m of last year’s Italy trip. That is 1774 m per day (excluding the Honningsvåg rest day again) and thus over 100 m more than I did in Italy. That Norwegian coastline looks treacherously flat on the map but you’re constantly going up or down regardless.
As already mentioned, the unplanned ultra-hard day involving Trollstigen, Ørnesvingen and Dalsnibba amounted to a climbing orgy with 3436 m of climbing in a single day over 163 km. Elevation wise this set a new personal record, beating the Stelvio / Ofenpass combo by just under a hundred meters.
Lofoten had two of the flattest days, 1091 m and 1118 m at 158 km and 126 km, respectively (average gradient: 0.69 %, 0.88 %), with the ferry-heavy day from Nesna to the middle of Norway at Brønnøysund coming between them at 1089 m over 131 km (0.86 %).
So much for the raw facts. Considering the unrelenting weather conditions, I can say with some confidence that this trip ranks first on the toughness scale so far.