A very cool pinnacle!
Flø is a legendary place on the north-west side of Hareidlandet island. One characteristic feature is that when the weather is at its worst, you will see a number of black objects in-between the huge waves. Surfers. Moods of Norway used to have a store there. What an unlikely place for a fashion shop! There is also an arts festival – “Go with the Flø“. The title is a winner!
There are also great opportunities for bouldering. There are a number of rocks that will give you the challenges you want, and there is also a climbing guide for the area. “Hoksteinen” is the mother of all the rocks. Not too hard on the easy route. HARD on the back side…
Another characteristic feature is “Kjerringa” , which I don’t know how to translate properly into English. But it’s a woman, probably not young anymore. The male equivalent would be “Gubben“. Where these names are used as part of the daily language, they are not to be meant to be condescending.
In any case, “Kjerringa” is a pinnacle, and when viewed from the side, it could resemble a face. Whether you see “Gubben” or “Kjerringa” will be up to you to decide.
You get to this pinnacle from the “Trongegjølet” couloir. The route from the couloir and up to the pinnacle doesn’t give itself away easily. It helps to be with someone who has been there before. And there’s a little bit of scrambling involved as well. You better not fall…
Sep 19 2017
Today, my girlfriend Anne and our friends Lena and Terje headed out from the Flø parking. Terje and I were heading for “Kjerringa”, while Lena and Anne would walk the shore. I didn’t want Karma (my dog) up there, so she would stay with Lena and Anne.
We parted just before Hoksteinen. After evaluating the mood of the local cows, Terje and I decided to cross the fence and take our chances. The cows gave us an angry look, but kept on with their business…
It was a hot day, and a steep ascent route like Trongegjølet makes you sweat. No matter how fit you are.
It had been a while since I was up here, and I almost passed the point where you scramble up to the ridge above. The initial scramble isn’t difficult. I think the “crux” is to avoid ticks. Which could be a real challenge…
Just before the top, we had to pass a slightly exposed section. Going up was not a problem, and soon we could “ride the pinnacle”.
Someone has put a table in … I don’t know if you can call it a cave. It’s more like an opening under the pinnacle. But we didn’t feel for sitting down and decided to continue with our hike.
Upon descent, I ran into some problems. I just didn’t feel comfortable when I have to use my left arm for handholds. But after a minute, I had figured out the correct sequence of moves, and we could proceed.
We continued up the couloir and could now look at the pinnacle from a higher position.
Then we aimed for Ytreflødalen and subsequently the path back to the parking. The girls were nowhere to be seen, and we assumed they were already back home. Which they were…
This was a very nice 6,1km round trip hike. I always enjoy going up here.
Pictures from the hike:
