The vertiginous mountain stairs – BBC Travel
Their work has an even greater impact for the Sherpas at home in Solukhumbu: since the start of the project, schools and a hospital have been built in Khunde and neighboring Khumjung, while the income is continuously channeled to the community within the meaning wide to improve health and social well-being. Rightly so, the Sherpas, so inspired by their Norwegian projects, have undertaken similar work on the paths that connect their mountain kingdom.
While Preikestolen focuses on the views of the rock platform, the other stairs to Norway’s paradise offer an array of secluded lookouts, coastal seascapes, and city-wide vistas. In Midsund, outside Molde, the Stone Staircase is a 2,200-step procession to Rørsethornet Peak from where you have a carousel view of the ocean, fjord, and mountain. Other highlights of the Norwegian city perimeter are the 1,300 steps winding up to Mount Ulriken from Bergen and the specially designed flight over Tromsø to Fjellstua; while the town of Mosjøen is home to Helgelandstrappa, Norway‘s longest stone staircase with 3,000 steps carved into the highlands.
For me, the connoisseur’s alternative to Preikestolen is Kjerag, a Sherpa trail to the highest peak in Lysefjord that features the same stone steps and views of the deep fjord, but without the crushing of visitors from its close neighbor. .
Partly because of the Sherpa stairs on a late autumn morning on the Lysefjord, the hike can seem pretty idyllic. In this land of sheer cliffs, stone stairs symbolize a more sustainable and sustainable way to trek the mountains, and that’s good news for anyone who enjoys the outdoors. Doubling, in fact, for anyone troubled by the post-pandemic increase in the number of trekkers rushing into the wilderness.
Indeed, for Norwegians like the Lofoten Rangers, a volunteer project carrying the torch to raise awareness of letterglene(the country’s deeply rooted respect for the environment), Sherpa Steps are great news. And that’s an aspect of the country, President Christina Svanstrøm told me, which is becoming more and more integrated into the national psyche of Norway.