Beautiful Aurland!
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| Knutseggi | 1630m | 140m | Aurland, Norway |
Back at Anne’s place in Sogndal, in beautiful weather. On Saturday, we decided to go to a mountain region we seldom visit – Aurland. Knutseggi looked like a nice and easy hike, with options for a round trip walk.
We took the Mannhiller – Fodnes ferry and drove across Aurlandsfjellet, which is always nice on a sunny day. We were lucky with the traffic – not too many camping vehicles against. Because of Aurlandsmarknaden (July 6-7), Aurland was a big chaos, but made it through the village without much delay.
We continued to Vassbygdi and followed RV50 up to Stondalstunnelen where went to the right on a gravel road leading up to the Viddalsvatnet dam – approx. 940m.
From the dam, we followed a tractor road up the mountainside. From the map, it looks like this road /path goes all the way to Seltuft.
After 2,3km, we decided to go off-trail and aim directly for the top of Knutseggi. The terrain was easy enough, so no path was needed.
The terrain on the mountain plateau was rocky, but easy to hike and we arrived the summit 1h:30m after heading out.
The views are definitely not like back home, where the Sunnmøre alps dominate the view in most directions. Here, one has to look long and hard for anything standing out. But a few landmarks, like Hårteigen, can be easily identified.
It was tempting to hike Storskavlen – 6,5km to the south – but the distance and the rocky terrain was a bit too much and we agreed to return via Storebotn.
It wasn’t clear from the map whether Storebotn would offer an easy ride or not, all the more reason to go and check out for ourselves.
It was somewhat a disappointment that the route down to the valley didn’t offer any difficulties. It was a smooth ride to the valley floor, but the upside was of course the beautiful scenery.
Eventually, we joined the tractor road and had as much fun as we could possibly have, on our way back to the trailhead.
After returning to the car, we drove to Aurland. We came late in the day, but there was still food for sale.
Back in Sogndal, we had a very nice barbeque evening. We’ll remember these good days. They’re not guaranteed.
Trip statistics: 9,8km, 820 vertical meters, 2h:40m
Pictures from the hike:
