Haldorpiggen, Fjellmillompiggen, June 22 2018

Summer vacation in eastern Norway, day 8

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Otta

Peaks visited:

Peak Height PF Location
Haldorpiggen 1119m 506m Sel, Norway
Gråhøe 1040m 52m Sel, Norway
Fjellmillompiggen 1140m 57m Sel, Norway

Continued from day 7. Continued on day 9.

Haldorpiggen (1119m)

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Haldorpiggen

Friday, and our last full day at Mysusæter and Rondane Høyfjellshotell. I had already visited the tops surrounding Mysusæter (Ranglarhøe, Kåsen and Vålåsjøberget) and we had been to Veslesmeden too.

Anne was keen on going up to Kåsen, and I wanted a new top. Hence, I had to leave Mysusæter.  I decided to go to Haldorpiggen  – only 9km to the west, but the access route was much, much longer. But first, time to relax the muscles…

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A nice way of starting the day…

I drove down to Otta and found a toll road (NOK 40,-) up Kleivrudåsen. The road seemed to never end, but 11,5km after leaving RV15, I reached my starting point for Haldorpiggen. I could have driven yet another 0,6km, but I wasn’t looking for the shortest hike possible.

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Our Haldorpiggen trailhead

I had brought Karma and Turte (Karma’s sister – that we were looking after for a week) and found the Haldorpiggen signpost. There was a path going up to the top, which was only 1,2km away.

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The Haldorpiggen trailhead

Not much of a hike, but it was a new top, and getting closer to my annual goal of 100 new tops. I was really on a roll and as things looked now, I would reach that goal before the summer was over.

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Very windy on Haldorpiggen

We took a parallel route down, mixed on and off-trail.

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The road across the mountain, incl. the Haldorpiggen hike

Trip statistics: 3,6km, 140 vertical meters, 40 minutes

Pictures from the hike:

 

Andershøe (1027m) – Not visited

While on this massif, I figured I could hike Andershøe too. So I continued westbound on the mountain road, which was really poor at times. I worried about a flat tire. Getting a service car up here would certainly take its time…

When I got to Ruste, private roads prevented me from getting closer to the mountain, and I decided to give up on the idea.

Veggemskampen (1014m)

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Veggemskampen

But, I didn’t give up the notion of another new top, so I continued on the mountain road, eventually got down to Sel and followed the E6 back to Otta. Here, I found the road parallel to RV15, but on the south side of the river and headed for Veggem and Veggemskampen.

A toll road would take me all the way to Myromsætre, and from here, the hike up the mountain shouldn’t take long.

But it was a very windy day, and after paying the toll fee on Veggumsvegen, I was worried that I could run into a fallen tree. I passed a lot of debris from bush on the road down to to Sel, and … well, I tend to worry about details. Worse than running into a fallen tree on the way up, would be to run into a fallen tree on the way down. That would take considerable time. Fortunately, I ran into a fallen tree on my way UP and turned around immediately and return to Mysusæter.

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Veggemskampen – another day…

Fjellmillompiggen (1140m)

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Fjellmillompiggen

It was still early in the day when I returned to Mysusæter and I told Anne that I would do a quick hike up to Fjellmillompiggen. It wasn’t on my A-list of peaks that count as NEW, but it still looked like a nice hike. And the dogs deserved a good walk after hours on the road.

We walked from the hotel and followed the path towards Raphamn/Gråhø.

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Leaving the hotel

We followed a well worn path up to a trig. point (1023m) and continued up to Gråhøe (1050m).

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Gråhøe trig. point

From here, we continued southwest and when I got Fjellmillompiggen in view, I realized that this would be a MUCH longer hike than I had anticipated. But, I didn’t want to turn around now.

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The dogs got something to focus on…

We followed a ridge down to a valley and proceeded off-trail up the mountain. Eventually, we reached the top, and I decided NOT to return the same way.

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On top of Fjellmillompiggen

From the top, I followed a path northbound and this path led us back to the starting point, close to the hotel.

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The route

With respect to the dogs, my conscience was now quite good, and I looked forward to our last dinner at the hotel. Tomorrow, we would go back to western Norway, and our vacation together would be over. Anne could report from a nice bike trip and hike up Kåsen and we concluded that we had really become acquainted with the Mysusæter area.

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Farewell to Rondane Høyfjellshotell

Trip statistics: 6,7km, 390 vertical meters, 1h:45m

Pictures from the hike:

 

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