ROUTE AND STRATEGY - NPL 2025
OUR IDEA OF A CLEAN THRU-HIKE
GENERAL NPL INFO
Norge på langs (NPL) means "The length of Norway". The goal is to cross the entire country, from Nesvarden rock in Lindesnes, the southernmost point of Norway, to Knivskjelodden rock near Nordkapp in the very north. Or vice versa. There are just 2 rules.
1) You must use only your own power for moving forward
2) You must stay within Norway all the time
The route is totally up to you. You can bike, you can hike, you can paddle, you can ski... Or you can run. Most people hike NPL with heavy backpacks for many months between spring and autumn. They mostly use a combination of asphalt roads and mountain trails. In the hardest parts of Norway most people turn to easier terrain and marked trails in Sweden and Finland. Which is a pity. Average length of classic NPL thru-hike is around 2600 - 2700 km, depending on which way you choose.
Until 2022, only 2 people ran it. Both took it as a sport challenge, so they ran the shortest possible way and almost completely avoided running through wild nature. It was about 2550-2600 km on busy asphalt roads.
In summer 2022, Petr Pavlicek set off the journey and became the first person who ran NPL purely across the wild nature of Norway. According to all known information, it was also the firts ever clean crossing of Norway ever, not just a run. Nobody before has even tried to cross Norway without using long stretches on asphalt roads.
This ultimate wilderness crossing took us several years of preparations and 3 attempts.
OUR WAY OF NPL
Our rules about NPL are very clear. During the NPL 2022 run, Petr connected the most interesting and various parts of Norway into one logical, clean, hard and absolutely stunning trail.
Clean trail means "to stay off the asphalt roads" as much as possible, in fact you can just cross them. In Norway, this is very hard and in many parts it toally changes the game, speed, and difficulty. At the same time, the goal is to create a trail, which will be repeated by many people in the future. So it must be not only hard and cool, but also fun and logical.
Initially, before the NPL 2022 run, Petr planned to use short stretches on asphalt roads. For example using a bridge across a few biggest rivers in populated valleys, which you must just cross on your way north. Petr hoped he could keep the asphalt under 1% during the whole 3000 km trip. It would mean 30 km.
In the end, he managed to keep the asphalt under 1 kilometer only! It was an epic fight, a very tough but also very fun challenge.
Read about important details about our ROUTE RULES AND ETHICS
IDEAL PLAN FOR NPL 2025 RUN
The length of our clean Norge på langs variant is from 2022 is 2,963 km, with a total vertical gain of +101 443 meters.
Petr managed to keep the distance spent on the asphalt roads below 1 kilometer - approximately 940 meters accumulated across about 75 asphalt road crossings - all precisely documented.
For our new upcoming clean NPL wilderness run in 2025, we have 2 main goals regarding the route:
1) CHANGING PARTS OF THE 2022 NPL TRAIL
Over the past 3 years Petr revisited the trail several times. In summer 2025 he will re-shape several sections, eliminating even more asphalt meters and also reducing significantly the amount of kilometers on small mountain and forest gravel roads. These adjustments will make the final, official NPL trail even more beautiful and wild. To make these changes valid, the trail must, of course, be run again. From start to finish. Otherwise it wouldn't count ;-)
2) FOCUS ON SPEED
Filming the main parts of the new upcoming official NPL trail was already done in 2022. It was an absolutely grueling, slow, day by day process. So this time we want to be fast! So there will be significantly less filming (read more about FILMING STRATEGY ) and the emphasis will be on speed, while maintaining our hardcore ethics. We are really curious how quickly we will be able to cross wild Norway this time.
Best-case scenario: running at least 50 km per day = 60 days
However... It sounds great on paper, but the reality in wilderness is often much tougher.
We are in Scandinavia, far in the north. Our route often leads through vast, pathless wilderness. In some sections, Petr will have to navigate through labyrinths of steep rock walls, dense forests, deep fjords, glaciers, wild rivers and endless wetlands. In such conditions, it is success if you "run" 1 km per hour, no matter how strong you are.
On good trails, such as in some famous national parks, you can be quite fast and do up to 90 km in one day, as Petr did for example in Hardangervidda during his 2021 training NPL attempt.
Wading streams and rivers is a very frequent part of finding your own way across Norway...
TWO HARDEST PARTS AND STAYING IN NORWAY
Finding "the nicest route" was a very long mind-blowing thinking process. Petr has spent countless nights over several years studying many different kinds of maps, articles, videos etc. He also spent many years researching possibilities straight in the terrain in many parts of Norway and he walked or ran about 40% of his ideal trail. Connecting these parts in one single long push was an extreme adventure in 2022. Improvisation was the daily reality. In 2025 it will be partly easier (because it was done already) and partly harder, because we focus on even cleaner variant and speed.
Why it's gonna be hard?
Each part of this route is generally very physically demanding itself. And then there are 2 extremely difficult wild parts without any trails, which most NPL thru-hikers partly or completely avoid. And instead use asphalt roads, a ferry boat or Sweden.
1) MYSTERIOUS SOUTHERN JUNGLE
The first extreme part is paradoxically the first 180 km in the very south of Norway, right from the first kilometer. That's because there are no connected marked trails in southern Norway and the landscape is very tough there.
Despite being totally in the south, the terrain "off the roads" is much harder here than in most much higher mountains more in the north. It is mainly very unpleasant yet cool green bushy jungle full of thorns, rocky hills, wetlands, tussocks, ticks and mosquitos.
Again. There is no nice obvious continuous trail in the south! Not even continuous logical line of gravel or forest roads. That is probably why 99% of the NPL thru-hikers walk the first 120 km either largely or simply all the way on the asphalt roads.
I talk about the starting section from Lindesnes lighthouse to Ljosland in the south of magic Setesdalheiene (Setesdal highlands) where the first decently-marked trails start. On the road it is only 120 easy and fast, but boring kilometers. If you go "our way" (through the jungle), you cover about 185 very hard, slow and painful kilometres, which cost you energetically much more than 300 km on the asphalt. And feel so much more unpleasant, you will be scratched, burned, bitten like never before. I really mean it. Especially the first 30 km from the Lindesnes lighthouse to Jåsund bridge are maybe the most extreme kilometres of the whole NPL in terms of "unpleasantness" ;-)
But you see true hidden gems like nowhere else.
Some people even totally skip the first harsh long mountain range Setesdalheiene and bike the first 310 km all the way to the start of Hardangervidda plateau, and start walking NPL on really good and well marked trails with a dense chain of mountain cabins.
What is so nice about NPL is that any combination is "legal" and fine, unless you use your own power. Everybody has its own style, and each successful and fair crossing of NPL deserves respect, even if you only walk on the road or bike the hardest parts. It is all about how you feel it...
But we feel it is a big pity to skip so much beauty. The southernmost part of Norway hides many truly unique, forgotten and atmospheric, sometimes even scary places. Places where time has stopped long time ago and you feel totally alone there. But again, you must REALLY BE READY to get super scratched, eaten alive, burned and wet just to get there ;-)
Petr dedicated a lot of energy to finding a hard but truly fantastic natural way without asphalt roads straight from the Lindesnes lighthouse.
During 26 days in the summer of 2021 he, supported by Radka, ran 1253 km across the whole southern and central part of Norway, including the highest peaks. He started through the wilderness right from the first meters. We dare to say that his path, especially the first week before hitting the marked trails in Ljosland, was the hardest and most natural "NPL start" ever. Honestly, sometimes it was pure masochism...
But the clean, logical and super beautiful "unmarked path" from Lindesnes peninsula to Ljosland in Setesdalheiene (where relatively well marked trails start) is established. Now "just" to connect it with the rest 2800 kilometers...
Watch a film from NPL 2021 training run showing perfectly how the terrain in the south looks like:
2) NORWEGIAN YOSEMITE
Another huge challenge, beside staying off the roads, is to stay only on Norwegian soil. Sounds obvious, but it is NOT! Not if you want to stay off the roads and civilization. Why? It is hard to describe in a few sentences, but it is a really complex problem. I will write a standalone article just about it a bit later. So just shortly for now...
Norway is a very long country, but in one part, it's really narrow. The narrowest part between the fjord and the Swedish border is only 6 km wide. This part is really special.
We are talking about approximately 200 km long coastal mountains behind the Arctic circle between the towns Fauske and Sulitjelma in the south and Narvik in the north. In the east, this area is marked by the artificial and very straight border with Sweden, which you can't cross, if you want to do clean NPL. The west border is natural and very curvy, created by bizarre coastal landscape. Enormous rock faces (higher than El Capitan in Yosemite) fall straight to the deep fjords, creating countless bays and peninsulas, which you can't cross, it is absolutely impossible here.
In between, it's an untouched land of steep walls, canyons, glaciers and also glacier rivers flowing to Sweden which you can't wade. Big parts are covered by snow the whole year. Far from any roads, mobile phone signal and fast rescue.
A seriously difficult, harsh and deserted stone heart of Lappland/Sápmi. Or as I call it - Norwegian Yosemite.
STAYING IN NORWAY
If you want to go north through this narrow rocky part of Norway, you have basically 2 obvious options. Either you use the only Norwegian asphalt road, famous E6 + ferry boat. Or, as many NPL thru-hikers do, you can continue north through Sweden in also beautiful, but much milder terrain.
But then, in my opinion, you can't call this hike Norge på langs. Right?
So we again skip both. We stay in the mountains of Norway only again. It will be really tough, unsupported and possibly dangerous and slow 250 km through incredibly harsh natural labyrinths. Sounds pretty hard, if you keep in mind that it will be after about 1900 demanding kilometers already. Here you must also be lucky with the weather and conditions. It is extremely dangerous to cross these often very steep giant granite slabs when they are wet or frozen!!!
Even further in the north, many people use well marked and 800 km long route Nordkalottleden, which beside Sweden crosses also Finland between lake Kilpisjärvi and the highest mountain of Finnland Halti.
We will stay OFF the marked trails even here. On the Norwegian side of the border.
Welcoming evening over enormous mountain plateau Finnmarksvidda from the Norwegian side of Halti, which is the highest mountain of Finnland.
12 SUMMITS
To make the trip more exciting, Petr will also try to climb again 12 iconic Norwegian mountains - Hårteigen, Kyrkja, Galdhøpiggen, Glittertind, Ruten, Midtre Sølen, Store Svuku, Skjækerhatten, Okssolten, Gasskatjåhkkå, Halti, and Gárdevárri.
And countless less-known mountains along the way.
Read more about it HERE
Summer 2021 training trip. After 700 km of running and hiking Petr could enjoy view from Galdhøpiggen - the highest mountain of Norway.