Silently, they exist as monuments of an ambitious and more sustainable national plan to make outdoor exploration more sustainable. They can also withstand all forms of weathering. Unlike normal hiking paths, they have been conceived to reduce the number of accidents and mountain rescues (by making it safer to walk) and created to help prevent erosion and strengthen the relationship between visitors and the land around them (by protecting the country's vulnerable mountain landscapes). And, so far, the so-called Sherpa stairs are the best solution. Which is to say that, by necessity, the way people access mountaintop viewpoints like Preikestolen is changing. That's 1.2 million boots marching up and down each year. And Lysefjorden Utvikling, the area's tourism development agency, is forecasting that the figure will reach 600,000 in a few years' time. Last year, despite Norway closing its international borders due to Covid, the viewpoint still managed to attract a creditable 183,000 visitors. Indeed, Preikestolen is now among Norway's most hiked trails, with some 331,000 visitors reaching its exposed top in 2019. But social media has changed all that, and over the past decade, the country has seen such a dramatic spike in overseas travellers keen to Instagram its viewpoints that something has had to give. There was a time when Norway's mountain paths would only see a handful of local visitors. There's an ancient beauty to the stairway and it comes from the fact that Preikestolen – like nearly 300 other natural stone staircase projects in Norway purpose-built over the past two decades – has been crafted by teams of Sherpas from Nepalese communities living in the shadows of Mount Everest. It is a hike up an expertly engineered and well-maintained stone staircase that is as much of a marvel as the finale itself. In many ways, the location and the sublime views from Preikestolen, or Pulpit Rock, near Stavanger in south-west Norway are irrelevant, because what is important is the journey to get there.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |