Transport days; Varland – Hov – Sogndal
Peaks visited (Click on the Peak name link to go directly to the chapter):
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| Fallhaugen | 689m | 100m | Gran/ Hurdal, Norway |
| Fjellenden (Fjellsbøfjellet) | 1145m | 210m | Nord-Aurdal, Norway |
| Kaupangsholtane | 423m | 65m | Sogndal, Norway |
| First day | Previous day | Next day | Last day |
Leaving Hovdeøyi, Apr 19 2019
Friday: The original plan was to ski Bossnuten on the way out from Møsvatn, but it was early pretty clear that there would be no time left after cleaning out from the rented cabin on Hovdeøyi, dragging the pulk back to Varland, drive 294 kilometers to our friends in Hov AND reach the Friday Taco.
So, we just cleared out from the cabin and headed towards Varland. Anne went ahead to get the car and get it closer to the lake.
Meanwhile, I was left with the pulk. No complaints though. It wasn’t particularly heavy as long as I was on the lake…
After tediously packing our stuff into the car, we drove the 5 hours to Hov and checked into our regular “base-camp” in Eva & Bjørn’s place in Scheeskroken above Randsfjorden.
Fallhaugen (689m), Apr 20 2019
Saturday: There was NO WAY I was NOT getting a new top today. And as everyone else was busy with their stuff, I left alone, aiming for the Lygna region – and Fallhaugen.
I did the mistake of driving along the Trevatna and Einavatnet lakes. The roads were terrible! Why on earth didn’t I drive via Brandbu?
When I saw Fallhaugen from a distance (the picture above), it certainly didn’t look like a ski-trip!
But when I got down to the start of the tractor road leading up to the antenna, I saw that the road had too much snow for walking. So, it would be skiing then. On partly rotten and partly icy snow. Which is OK, but there wasn’t anywhere to park the car.
I found a parking spot 0,8km up the road, and decided to just ski through the forest and join with the tractor road further down. Skiing through this dense forest with icy snow was no fun at all.
But eventually, I got onto the tractor road and followed it up the antenna. The ascent was OK, but I wondered if I would survive the descent…
I assumed the high point was the hill 0,3km west of the antenna. But there was another point 130m to the north, so I decided to visit all tops.
When I got to the top on the municipality border, I was quite convinced that I was on the highest point.
Here, I had planned to make a swift descent back Fallhaugsætra (a cabin I passed on the way up), but I discovered that I had lost one of my skins. So I had to retrace my steps and found it on the antenna top.
The descent went moderately OK. Fortunately, I’m not a totally hopeless skier and managed to get back down without taking any falls. I took the same route up the forest back to the car and was back in Hov in due time for the barbeque..
Trip statistics: 5,8km, 340 vertical meters, 1h:20m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Fjellenden, Fjellstølfjellet (1145m), Apr 21 2019
Sunday: We said goodbye to our friends and left Hov in the morning. We would now drive to Anne’s place in Sogndal and -definitely- do a ski-trip along the way…
Looking at the map, I could see that we had both been to Binnhovdknatten and Bjørgovarden on the mountain ridge between Tonsåsen and Steinsetfjorden, but not Fjellstølfjellet by Danebu. Hence, we just had to go there.
We took the toll road (NOK 20,-) up to the slalom hill by Danebu. There wasn’t a whole lot of snow around, but the prepared tracks seemed to be OK. The only downside was the recent, massive temperature rise that had made the snow rotten as hell.
Still, no complaints, and after we learned about the round trip course, we were on our way.
We stopped and talked to some other skiers, and asked if any tracks ran across the mountain ridge? We felt they responded as we had never been in the mountains or on skis before and both Anne and I reacted to this … patronizing … behavior. But in the end – as if we gave a damn anyway…
The course led us close enough to Fjellenden anyway, and we only had to do 0,5km on rotten snow. Karma struggled for her life to keep up.
But eventually, we were on top, very happy and didn’t even worry about the rain that had started to fall.
We then skied back down to the course and followed it westbound until it curved south and took us back to the parking area.
And our journey to Sogndal continued…
Trip statistics: 7,4km, 280 vertical meters, 1,5 hours
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Kaupangsholtane (423m), Apr 21 2019
Still Sunday: At Kaupanger, just before Sogndal, we found it was time to walk the dog and went to Kaupangsholtane – one of the many forest ridges on the Storehaugfjellet massif. We parked along the road to the airport and headed south.
I really love the Kaupanger forest. There are plenty of paths, but there is no problem going off-trail either.
And once you start to reach the cliffs above Sognefjorden, you get some views too…
We went across the three Kaupangsholtane tops and did a round trip hike back to the car.
Trip statistics: 3,5km, 170 vertical meters, 55 mins
