Back in beautiful Jølster
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Municipality | Location |
| Instengegga | 1301m | 287m | Jølster / Gloppen | GPX |
| Vardefjellet (north top) | 1182m | 52m | Jølster / Gloppen |
Yet another drive from Sogndal to Sunnmøre, after a nice weekend with my girlfriend Anne. As always, I try to do a hike along the way, weather permitted.
Today, I had set my eyes on Instengegga (also known as Langebotnsegga) in Jølster. As the trailhead in Helgheimsdalen is at 560m, it seemed like a “walk in the park”. It also seemed that Instengegga was just below the fog. The higher peaks in the region had fog from 1300m and up.
So if I could just find the right trailhead! I accidentally got on the toll road to Husstøylen – and the forest road was both steep and rough and with two cattle gates along the way. I didn’t realize my mistake until I reached Husstøylen and looked down on Helgeheimsstøylen 1,6km to the northwest (the above picture).
Should I just start the hike from here? No, I wasn’t in mood for that, and drove back down to the highway. Only NOK 25,- wasted in toll fare. No worries. Back on the main road, I managed to take another wrong exit, but I got the third one right and drove up to the parking 0,5km south of Helgheimsstøylen.
This road has some challenges. Cows in the road, being on them. A partial rough road being another. But I’ve been up here two times before (so I should really know the right turn by now…) so I knew what I could expect.
Karma and I headed out 4:25pm and followed the marked path north towards the Vasskaret pass. Just before the pass, the – or another – marked path turned west in direction of point 1074m.
Now I was on the ridge proper and followed the marked path up to Vardefjellet. From here, it was an easy walk across the ridge – towards the pass between Vardefjellet and Instengegga.
From the pass, we had 170 vertical meters to ascent before we stood on top of Instengegga – below the fog! It feels SO GOOD to reach a new mountain top, and that is probably the main reason for why I do this all year around.
I was now on the Jølster / Gloppen border and enjoyed the (partial) views towards the peaks that I have yet not been to; Skjorta, Botnafjellet, Instengfjellet, Litlebottsegga, Gotdalsnipa, to name a few. The thought of visiting all these peaks makes the 3 hours drive from Sogndal to Sunnmøre worth while!
My descent went down Steinbotnegga. Almost 2km in a straight line down the ridge until I left the ridge and found a slightly cumbersome route into the lower part of Langebotn – and down to the river south of Helgheimsstøylen.
We were back at the car 6:49pm – 2h:25m after leaving the car. The total distance was 9,5km and the total vertical gain was approx. 820m.
Pictures from the trip:
