3 new tops, on my way to Sogndal
Peaks visited (Click on the Peak name link to go directly to the chapter):
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| Markesetholten | 549m | 101m | Høyanger, Norway |
| Øygardsfjellet | 559m | 256m | Høyanger, Norway |
| Hustaket | 555m | 108m | Høyanger, Norway |
Markesetholten (549m)
Saturday: On my way to Sogndal – again. Quite a few trips down there lately! The main outdoor activity this weekend was Sunday’s trip from Vollavika to Vetlesand with Sogndal Turlag, where Anne was one of the trip leaders. A hike along Sognefjorden is nice of course, but as I wouldn’t one singe new top on that hike, I better get some on my way to Sogndal.
So, I drove through Førde and to Vadheim, having 3 tops in my sight.
Markesetholten was the first. It would be a quick hike. Actually, I reckoned that the drive in and out the valley from Vadheim would take longer time than the hike.
I parked the car 0,5km before the Markeset farm and headed straight up the forest, with the summit only 0,6-0,7km away.
When I got on the plateau near the top, I had a good view towards Markeset and the mountain road that seemed to go on and on. Not sure if it’s open to the public past Markeset, though.
A couple of minutes later, the first top was “in the bag”.
We took a parallel route down, and now I had a good view towards Øygardsfjellet – my 2nd top for the day. I made a decision on where I would ascend and continued back to the car.
Trip statistics: 1,2km, 190 vertical meters, 26 mins
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Øygardsfjellet (559m)
I drove down to Indredalen and parked the car near Slåtta. From here, we crossed the bridge and headed straight up the forest.
It was a nice and open birch forest and it was easy to make good progress.
After a while, we reached a small cliff band. I decided to go to the right and walk around it.
The terrain soon got easier.
And finally, we were on top on Øygardsfjellet.
We were now exactly 2,8km southeast of Markesetholten.
We took (more or less) the same route back down, and I started to focus on our final hike for the day.
Trip statistics: 2,8km, 465 vertical meters, 1h:10m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Hustaket (555m)
Hustaket (“the house roof”) was our 3rd goal for the day. I drove back to Vadheim and followed RV55 towards Høyanger. A couple of minutes after passing Vadheimstunnelen, we arrived at Klevald, where I parked the car alongside the main road. I had a feeling that I was parking on private property, but there was no one home that could give me permission.
We then hiked up the tractor road towards Grøndalsstølen.
After 1km, in the first curve, I decided to leave the road, cross the river and hike up the forest ridge. I was happy to find a vague path on the other side of the river.
The hike up the forest was really nice!
I hadn’t studied the map very closely and by the time we were about to rise above forest (near point 457m), I hoped that we were close to the top. But then I realized that the summit was more than 1km away, to the north.
The terrain across Høgeheia was easy to hike and it didn’t take us to long to reach the top of Hustaket.
We had a nice view towards Vadheimsfjorden from the top.
And we were exactly 4,4km south of Øygardsfjellet.
We hiked across Høgeheia on our way back, but took a different route down the forest, and passed Grøndalsstølen before getting on the tractor road. 3 new tops, and now I was mentally prepared for the all-day hike along Sognefjorden the next day (which wouldn’t involve ANY sort of top, big or small)
And some hours later, I arrived in Sogndal where Anne had prepared barbeque. Bless her!
Trip statistics: 7,2km, 570 vertical meters, 1h:52m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
