The morning begins with a quiet drive away from Stavanger’s harbor, the guide’s van sliding past low granite farms while the fjord opens like a dark lens. After a short ferry crossing, the vehicle climbs to the Preikestolen trailhead and the air sharpens — salt and pine and something older, colder. The trail launches immediately: a path of roots and rock that rises in steady steps, then gives way to slabs of stone that angle toward the sky. By the time hikers round the final bend, the cliff announces itself — a flat, square slab of granite hovering 604 meters above Lysefjord, daring you to step to the edge and look down into the fjord’s glassy blue.