Is Kjeragbolten Scary?
What works
- The step itself is a stride from the side, not a jump or a climb
- The top of the boulder is flat and there is rock on both sides of you
- No equipment is needed and none is provided, because none is required
- There is no recorded death from falling off the boulder
Worth knowing
- The plateau before it is open and exposed, with 984 metres of air on one side
- There is no fence anywhere, by design — see the fence page
- Wind comes up the fjord side without much warning
- You will do this at hour four or five, when your legs are already tired
What actually frightens people
Not the boulder. The last stretch of plateau. You come up the third climb, the ground opens out, and suddenly the edge is over there and it is a very long way down. Some people feel it in the backs of their knees. That feeling arrives before you can see the bolten at all, and it is the thing most people are describing afterwards when they say Kjerag was terrifying.
The boulder itself, seen from a couple of metres away, is smaller and more solid than it looks online. It is about five cubic metres of rock jammed into a crevice, and it has been jammed there since the ice left. Photographers shoot it from below and from the side precisely because that angle makes it look like a marble balanced on a wire. Standing next to it, the visual trick stops working.
What the step is
A short stride, sideways, from the rock onto the flat top. You are not stepping over the drop; the crevice has walls on both sides and the gap you cross is about half a metre. People with a serious fear of heights still find that half metre impossible, and that is a perfectly reasonable place to stop. Nobody up there is grading you. How it got wedged in is on the boulder page.
Who should think twice
If heights make you freeze rather than merely uncomfortable, the honest answer is that the plateau will be unpleasant and the boulder will probably be a no. If you are worried about the trail rather than the exposure, that is a fitness question and a footwear question, and it is answered on how hard it is. If you want a big cliff with a flat top and a shorter day, Preikestolen is the sensible alternative and nobody will think less of you.
What I would not do is decide from home. I have seen more people talk themselves out of Kjerag in a hotel room than on the mountain.
Sit down on the plateau for five minutes before you go out to the queue. The nerves that arrive with the view usually settle once your heart rate does, and half the people I watched refuse the boulder had walked straight up to it still breathing hard from the third climb.
What there is to book
Not the trail. Nobody sells a ticket to Kjerag and nobody could, because there is no gate and nobody standing at one. What you pay for is the ride out of Stavanger and the guide who walks it with you, and the road up is open for about five months a year. The options are laid out on the bookings page and compared on the decision page.
Frequently asked questions
Do you have to jump onto Kjeragbolten?
No. You step onto it from the side, a stride of about half a metre, onto a flat top with rock on both sides of the crevice.
Is there anything to hold on to?
Not at the boulder. There are several hundred metres of chains on the steep slabs earlier in the walk: see the chains.
Can I do the hike and skip the boulder?
Yes, and many people do. The plateau and the view are the same whether or not you step on.