1. Bob and Judy Russell conquer “Preikestolen” in Norway (May 2004) Bob and Judy Russell conquer “Preikestolen” in Norway (May 2004)

2. Stavanger, which sits on the SW coast of Norway, is a fishing village. My cousin’s husband, Steffen, built a gorgeous retirement home (the red dot) on one of the islands north of the city where he was raised. One day, we took a ferry up the fjord below Preikestolen (brown dot). The day we climbed, we drove from Stavanger to the west of the rock (green dot). The small purple flag marks the location of the “rock.”

3. About every ¼ of a mile, signs would tell you where you are (red arrow) and the incline left to accomplish. These signs did not make Judy feel very confident! “Preikestolen” on the wooden sign means the path up…”Preikestolhytta” means the way down.

4. Thank the Lord, the Norwegians sprayed red “T’s” for TRAIL up and down the mountain— otherwise, we might have spent days looking for the rock and trying to find our way back to the parking lot and our car. Some trails were easy to walk; others more difficult.

5. Judy took frequent opportunities to sit and catch her breath. Once, along the trail, she found a rock that seemed to be made for sitting! The climb, done in May in temperate conditions, was a good workout, but not impossible – there were all ages of folks on the trail, some a lot older than we were!

6. We finally get a good glimpse of the fjord and know we are nearing the end of our journey. The “path” to Preikestolen is behind Judy. We are about 100 yards from being able to finally see the huge granite outcropping and a better view of the fjord.

7. A good shot of the rock and fjord before I climbed down from the higher outcropping on which we were standing. It looks like you could run off the edge of Preikestolen and jump to the water, nearly 2,000 feet below—but it is impossible to do so.

8. Judy is thrilled that she made the climb, but puts her foot down when she sees the granite chunk below and vows to stay on the ledge while Bob climbs down to the rock.

9. A shot of Bob from the ledge above Preikestolen—there was a reasonably easy path to “climb” and walk down to get on the actual rock, though it is not seen in the photo.

10. Judy takes a photo of her intrepid husband as he boldly inches closer to the edge. I have never feared heights and have stood on the edge of the Grand Canyon and looked down, but (though there was no wind that day) I could not walk to the edge and look down!

11. As I leaned back so a photo could be snapped of me, I sure hoped the crack under my armpit didn’t lead to a snapping off of rock and my tumbling over the side. (Each year, Norwegian geology engineers study the rock and its many cracks for safety.)

12. A shot taken by a member of an SAS flight crew who were climbing that day—I asked them to take a few of me on the rock. I finally decided to sit on the edge and look down.

13. As Bob perches on the ledge about 100 feet below, Judy calls my cousin, Maryan, on the phone loaned to us by her Norwegian hubby—then, we called Brian in Texas. The European phones work EVERYWHERE (different frequency than we have), even in the boonies!

14. This photo reveals the distance to the water—from the rock (laterally). There have been suicide jumps with the thought that one might land in the water…but in fact, the jumpers only go out a few feet and then ricochet off the rocks as they plummet to their death.

15. Two shots of Preikestolen I took from a ferry trip down the fjord below the “rock.” On the right, you can see that jumping off the rock gets you NOWHERE near the water below. However, when you are on the huge chunk of granite, it looks like you will—an optical illusion.

16. The two Texicans stop for a tripod-and-timer photo after accomplishing their journey. I would go back tomorrow—Judy tells me she will go to the rock only by HELICOPTER.