Packing List for Odda, Norway: What Women Should Bring

Photograph: Odda at the head of the Sorfjord under the snow peaks by Wolfmann, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Odda is a town at the head of the Sorfjorden, the branch of the main Hardangerfjord that runs south into the mountains of western Norway. It covers 3.02 square kilometres at a density of about 1,573 people per square kilometre, it includes the Eitrheim area just northwest of the centre, and Norwegian National Road 13 runs straight through it.

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The photograph shows the whole situation in one frame, and the situation is the point: a flat scrap of buildable ground at the end of a fjord, a car park and a cafe, and then valley walls going almost straight up to snow, with a glacier tongue in the gap. Odda is a town in a hole in the mountains, and everything about visiting it follows from that.

What Is Here, and the Two Odda Reputations

There are two stories about this town and both are true.

The first is that it is old tourism. Odda has been populated for centuries, and in the 19th century it became a significant tourist destination. Visits ranged from English pioneers around 1830 to Kaiser Wilhelm II, who came every year between 1891 and 1914, and that patronage is why several hotels were built here. Some of the main attractions around Odda are still those ones: the Buarbreen glacier, the Folgefonna glacier nearby, and the Hardangervidda plateau above.

The second is that it is an industrial town, and people say that as though it were a criticism. The present Odda grew up around smelters built at the head of the fjord in the mid-twentieth century, drawing migrants from different parts of Norway. Carbide production, and then cyanamide, started in 1908 after a hydroelectric power plant was built at nearby Tyssedal to feed the arc furnaces. That plant was once the largest in the world, and it ran until 2003.

So this is a working Norwegian town with a real history that is not about scenery, sitting in some of the best scenery in Europe. If you arrive expecting a painted village you will be disappointed; if you arrive expecting a town, you will find a good one.

Most People Are Here for a Walk They Have Not Started Yet

Odda is the base for Trolltunga, and that is why most visitors book a bed here. This post deliberately does not describe that walk: this library already covers it properly and the sources used here carry nothing about it. What this post will say is the thing a Trolltunga-focused itinerary tends to miss, which is that the town is where you will spend your evenings, your weather day and your recovery day, and it is worth choosing accommodation on that basis rather than on trailhead proximity alone.

The other consequence is practical. A town full of people doing one hard walk means the shops stock what that walk needs, and it also means beds are tight in season and the single road in carries everybody.

Recommended Tours and Experiences

The Weather Is Vertical, Not Seasonal

The most useful thing to understand about packing for Odda is that the interesting weather is not next week's, it is the weather eight hundred metres above the car park.

The photograph is a mild bright day at sea level with snow clearly visible on the tops in the same frame. That gap is the whole problem. You can leave the town in shirtsleeves and be in wind and sleet within two hours of walking, in any month, and the valley walls mean cloud arrives without much warning.

This post prints no temperatures, because the source used here carries none. What it will say is that layers you can add and remove beat any single correct garment, and that the forecast for the town is not the forecast for the plateau.

Norway's advisory describes the conditions a packing list has to answer, and it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing. THE WEATHER CAN CHANGE QUICKLY, PRODUCING ARCTIC CONDITIONS EVEN IN SUMMER ON EXPOSED MOUNTAIN TOPS. THE WINTER IS LONG AND CAN LAST WELL INTO APRIL. TEMPERATURES CAN DROP TO MINUS 25C AND BELOW. THERE IS ALSO A HIGH WIND CHILL FACTOR, PARTICULARLY IN UNSHELTERED AREAS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES. Three things follow from that and they are not the same thing as owning a warm coat. A long winter means the shoulder seasons are winter, so an April trip is a winter trip. Wind chill rather than air temperature is what you dress against, which makes a windproof outer layer worth more than a thicker insulating one. And conditions changing quickly on a mountain in summer means carrying the layer you do not currently need, which is the entire argument for base layers that pack to nothing and do not hold damp.

When to Go

Summer is the season for anything high and is when the town is busiest. Spring and autumn are quieter and the fjord is at its best, with the high ground unreliable. Winter is a real Norwegian mountain winter at the end of a long road, and the road matters as much as the weather.

Norway's driving rules include one limit framed in a way that makes it immediately clear and two that catch visitors by surprise. ON ALCOHOL, the FCDO says that if you are found to have A QUARTER OF ENGLAND'S LEGAL LIMIT of alcohol in your system you may get a fine and possible imprisonment, and that THERE ARE FREQUENT ROADSIDE CHECKS. In practice that is one drink too many, so the working rule is none. ON TYRES, winter tyres with a MINIMUM 3MM TREAD are required if there is snow or ice on the roads, and studded tyres or chains may also be needed. And the two a visitor simply would not know: KEEP YOUR HEADLIGHTS ON, DIPPED, DURING THE DAYTIME ALL YEAR ROUND IN ALL PLACES, and ON ROADS NOT MARKED WITH A PRIORITY SIGN, THE YELLOW DIAMOND, YOU MUST GIVE WAY TO TRAFFIC COMING FROM THE RIGHT. That second one is the genuine hazard, because a car emerging from a side road on your right has priority and will take it. Driving offences carry on-the-spot fines of up to 10,000 Norwegian krone.

Is Odda Safe for Women Travelers

Norway carries no advised-against area anywhere. The phrase "advise against" appears nowhere on the FCDO's landing or safety pages for the country, and neither page names Odda, Hardanger or Vestland. Norway is among the most straightforward countries in this library for solo travel and a small fjord town is at the easy end of it.

US State Department travel advisory: the Norway advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.

UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/norway, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.

The honest risk here is not other people and it is not even the cold. It is going up without telling anyone, in weather that was fine when you left. Mountain rescue in Norway is a public service and is not charged to the person rescued, which is the opposite of the Alps and removes any financial reason to delay calling for help. Call early rather than late.

Emergency numbers: Norway uses three direct numbers and the distinction matters more here than elsewhere, because 112 IS THE POLICE NUMBER rather than a general router: 112 for police, 113 FOR AN AMBULANCE and 110 for the fire service. For a medical emergency, 113 is the faster call. All three work from any phone including a locked mobile and operators speak English. For a non-urgent medical problem, 116117 reaches the out-of-hours doctor service. And the one specific to this country: in the mountains and at sea, remember that the FCDO states EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE AND SEARCH AND RESCUE ARE LIMITED across the half of Norway inside the Arctic Circle, so the call connects quickly and the help may still be a long way off.

The Odda Packing List

Pack for the top rather than for the town, and you will be right in both places.

A merino wool base layer is the foundation and this is close to the ideal case for it. On a long day that starts warm and ends in wind, the base layer is what keeps working once you have sweated into it, and merino holds its insulating value damp where a cotton layer actively chills you. That is not a comfort point in Norwegian mountain weather.

Over it a fleece mid layer and a packable rain jacket that genuinely stops wind. The shell is the layer people under-pack here, because the town is sheltered and the plateau is not.

Waterproof hiking boots rather than trail shoes if you are going high: this is wet rock, bog and old snow well into summer, and ankle support on a long descent is worth more than the weight saved. Merino socks, and a spare pair kept dry in the bag.

A merino beanie weighs nothing and is the single most effective thing you can add when the wind comes up on exposed ground.

Gloves and a head torch are both advised and neither is linked, because the six link cap is reached. The torch matters more than it sounds at this latitude: a long walk that overruns in autumn finishes in the dark, and there is no lighting above the town.

Essential Resources for Women in Odda

Emergency numbers: 112 for police, 113 for ambulance and 110 for fire in Norway. For mountain rescue, 113 is the number, and the service is not charged to the person rescued.

Main hospital: Odda has a local hospital, which is unusually good provision for a town this size and is a direct consequence of its industrial history. Anything serious goes to Bergen, which is a long drive around the fjords rather than a short one, and that distance is worth factoring into any plan that involves going high alone.

Official health authority: Helsenorge, the Norwegian public health service portal, covers the national guidance, which is the right level here.

US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Oslo.

Official tourism authority: Visit Norway, the official travel guide, covers the national picture. For road 13's condition, for ferry connections and for whether the high routes are open and in what state, Norwegian road and trail services are the current source rather than anything printed here.

US State Department travel advisory: the Norway advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.

UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/norway, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.

Norway is in the EEA rather than the EU, and that distinction does not cost you anything here: a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which in Norway means paying the same patient contribution a Norwegian pays rather than nothing. Travel insurance sits on top of it, and in Norway it should specifically cover SEARCH AND RESCUE AND AIR AMBULANCE, because the terrain rather than the medicine is what makes a Norwegian incident expensive. A pharmacy is an APOTEK, they handle minor problems without an appointment, and the larger towns have one open late. TAP WATER IS AMONG THE BEST IN THE WORLD and buying bottled water here is purely a waste of money. There are no required vaccinations and no endemic tropical disease. TICKS occur along the southern coast and in the south east, carrying Lyme and, in a narrow coastal band, tick-borne encephalitis, which is a reason to check after walking in long grass. The real medical risk in Norway is environmental rather than infectious: cold, wet and exposure, which is what the clothing on this page is for.

Solo women safety assessment: Odda is an easy and friendly town to be alone in. Norway has no advised-against area, the FCDO names nothing here, the town has a hospital and a real year-round population rather than a seasonal one, and nobody will take any particular interest in you. The entire risk picture is environmental and it concentrates in one decision: going up. The weather at the top is not the weather in the car park, cloud arrives fast between steep walls, daylight is short for half the year, and the ground stays wet and snow-patched late. Tell your accommodation where you are going and when you expect to be back, turn around earlier than feels necessary, and call 113 early if anything goes wrong, because it costs you nothing.

Reading On

Trolltunga is why most people come and its post covers the walk properly, including what the day actually asks of you; this one covers the town you will be sleeping in. Bergen is the city most visitors route through and the nearest serious medical provision. Flam covers the other end of the western fjord country and the railway most visitors use to reach it, and the country-level Norway packing list carries what applies everywhere. The Norway travel guide for women is the hub, and the travel packing guide covers the system this list is built on.

If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.

For why wet mountain weather argues for merino against the skin rather than one thick layer, see our guide to the best merino wool base layers for women, and the full range is in the Roman Trail collection.