Pentecost peak-bagging in Hyllestad
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| Tempelet | 398m | 160m | Hyllestad, Norway |
| Ramsgrøheia | 430m | 272m | Hyllestad, Norway |
| Ramsgrønova | 590m | 337m | Hyllestad, Norway |
| Grønehaugen | 585m | 62m | Hyllestad, Norway |
| Dyrefjellet | 525m | 47m | Hyllestad, Norway |
| Flateheia | 572m | 109m | Hyllestad, Norway |
While Anne spent Pentecost in Denmark with friends, I rented a cabin at Øen in Hyllestad – the same cabin that Anne and I rented in 2016. It was nice to see Sonja and Jørgen Øen again, and they could offer me the same cabin as in 2016. I checked in (around 1pm – Sonja and Jørgen had been discussing if I would check in first or after my hiking), and was busy to get on with the primary task – to get myself as many new PF100+ mountain tops as possible. If I should have the slightest chance of meeting my annual goal of 100 NEW tops…
TEMPELET( 398m) & RAMSGRØHEIA (430m)
I drove up to Liane, as far as I could drive before parking the car and looked at a) a steep wall and b) juniper bush all around. I’ve been in the hiking business long enough to know that this would NOT get nice. On peakbook.org, I had read (thanks, Knut Sverre) that the terrain was better further west. Still, I decided to hike straight up. I stayed as close to the cliff as possible, hoping there was less bush there. That was … somewhat true.
It didn’t take long to reach the high point and now that I was here, I figured I could hike Ramsgrøheia too. Which was on my to-do list anyway, but possibly along the east ridge. But from what I could see from Tempelet (the Temple), I could probably ascend Ramsgrøheia from the northwest without too much pain (read: bush).
Knut Sverre was right, it was less bush further west and I got into the valley without any problems. And the ascent of Ramsgrøheia was also fairly uncomplicated (but far from fun). A deer gave me a good scare when it suddenly took off, just a few meters away from Karma and me. After visiting the high point, we returned the same way down to the valley and followed a path back to the car.
I returned to the rented cabin to perform some IT stuff, part of the being on duty routine. 30 minutes later, I was done and ready to go again.
Trip statistics: 4,7km, 450 vertical meters, 1h:25m.
Pictures from the hike:
RAMSGRØNOVA ( 590m) & FLATEHEIA (572m)
Once again, I drove up to lake Ramsgrøvatnet, but now took the turn towards Høydal. Ramsgrønova (aka Hornsnova) was the primary goal. Flateheia was the secondary goal, assuming easy terrain. I met a farmer and asked for trail advice. I probably misunderstood him, and ended up westbound on a tractor road that turned into a deer track. I crossed the creek and headed north, still along the deer track until it didn’t provide any additional service. I was quite happy when I reached Ramsgrønova, as this could have been a terrible hike.
Once up, I could see from the GPS that Flateheia was 3,4km away, straight line. That meant at least 4-5km in the terrain. But OK – Flateheia couldn’t be easily reached from any other place either, so I decided to go for it. The plan was to hike across Grønehaugen, Dyrefjellet and to Flateheia, return to south of Grønehaugen and see if I could find the tractor road that I’ve should have taken in the first place.
It wasn’t a fun walk. Not any naked rock to walk on, just turfs, bog, moors, whatever you want to call it. But eventually I reached Flateheia and could go “Yai…” on my 4th top for the day.
Returning to Grøneheia was not something I looked forward to, so I sat down and studied the (small) GPS map (old map) for options. None found. Then I looked at the map on the phone, and I could see a forest road far into Høydalsdalen valley. It wouldn’t be far from Flateheia, permitted that the terrain would allow me to pass. It’s some pretty steep cliffs here…
From Flateheia, I headed down to Snømyra, alongside a steep cliff. The descent went fine. Then I got on the ridge towards Mikkalplassen, only to find that a very, very steep cliff separated me from a tractor road. But I soon found the right way down to the tractor road – and eventually the forest road and had an easy jog back to the car.
The time was 7:18pm when I returned to the car. Plenty enough time for another hike, but I figured I could call it a day after 4 tops, 1200 vertical meters and 15,5km of hiking. But more importantly, I was a bit bored. I’m enthusiastic, but not addicted. There IS a difference.
I had a very nice evening in the rented cabin. The only downside was that the dog looked bored. “Was this it? After 4,5 hours in the car to get here?” I promised to make it up to her the next day.
I looked forward to enjoy dinner and watch TV, only to find 30-some German TV-channels where any non-German show was dubbed. I was NOT happy, realizing that most of the people renting these cabins during the summer are Germans, here to fish. I finished dinner in record time and got on with PC work. Maintaining this website is a time-consuming task. When I checked out two days later, I learned that I should have selected “HDMI” to get Norwegian TV. Sigh…
Trip statistics: 10,8km, 735 vertical meters, 2h:45m.
Pictures from the hike:
