Back in the Haukåbøra region, 10 years after the first visit
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| Haukånipa | 790m | 180m | Flora, Norway |
| Tjofjell | 350m | 222m | Flora, Norway |
Haukånipa (790m), May 18 2019
Saturday: After the gorgeous National Day the day before, in terms of content and weather, Saturday brought clouds and a little rain. But not to prevent us from going to Haukånipa – as we had planned the day before.
Our friends Anne May and Jan had come to stay with us, in our rented cabin at Klauvene by Norddalsfjorden, and they looked forward to go hiking with us.
We drove a few km up the road to Magnhildskaret, and parked by the Grytavassbu trailhead.
On our way towards the mountain, we assumed that the ascent would be trivial, as there was a path on the map. That – turned out to be a false assumption.
We passed Grytadalsbu on our way through the forest. A self-served DNT hut where a handful of people can spend the night on benches, and more people on the floor.
We continued upwards and were curious about where our route went. The mountain looked steep!
We tried to follow the path that was on the map, but we then realized that we were on the way down to lake Haukåvatnet.
So we had to head towards the steep cliffs and see if there was a way up. We spread up. I checked the right flank, Jan the left.
I didn’t find any route that would *easy* get us to higher ground, but Jan seemed to have found one. There was actually a neat way up, via some steep, grassy “corridors”.
And shortly after, we stood by a cairn which clearly was there to mark the top of the cliff route. We also noticed a few “T’s” (painted in red on rock), and so there could potentially be another route up the mountain. The thing was – we hadn’t seen a single “T” on our way from the trailhead.
The rest of the route up to the summit was a *stroll*
Fortunately, it had stopped raining by the time we reached the top. It was actually clearing up a bit.
From the top, we could see down to the cabin we had rented for the weekend.
And the below picture is a “do you remember?” moment. I met Anne (properly) the first time by Norddalsfjorden, where we did our first hike together – to Haukøbøra back in 2009. The hike ended in a follow-up trip and the rest is history.
“Properly”, as we actually met below Gottophesten (Balestrand) in May 2004. But at the time, we didn’t know about each other and were just passing skiers.
After a nice stay on top, it was time for the descent. We were not tempted to see where the “T’s” would lead us and stuck to our ascent route. Which we know would work.
Once down from the upper cliffs, we found an OK route down to the valley, where we split company. I had to be online at work at 3pm to do some office work. The others wanted to sit down for lunch and take it easy.
I was back at the car 2:35pm, and had plenty of time to drive down to Klauvene and get on-line.
Nice hike! The steep terrain and the route finding was a big bonus. Too easy is never fun.
Pictures (Canon80D) from the hike:
Trip statistics: 7,6km, 580 vertical meters, 3h:45m
Tjofjell (350m), May 18 2019
Saturday: After the trip to Haukånipa, I went back to the cabin to do some chores at work, while the others drove to Svelgen to shop groceries. When I had completed my work, the others still hadn’t come back and so I decided to pay Tjofjell a visit. It would be a short drive, and hopefully – a short hike.
I drove to Norddalsfjord (the place) and parked by a cemetery at the head of the valley leading to lake Litlevatnet.
From here, I followed the forest road towards Litlevatnet for 1,2km.
Just before the lake, I saw the stairway that I had seen on pictures from other trip reports (peakbook.org) and knew that this was my exit-the-road point.
I didn’t really know what to expect on the mountain, but I assumed it would be rugged. After all, this was a Flora mountains. But the terrain was fairly gentle. In contrast to the neighbour mountains…
It was a smooth hike on smooth rock to the upper part of the mountain.
For a mountain as low and small as this, I was surprised about the “amount of terrain” up here. But the clue was just to keep heading *up*.
And eventually, we reached the high point, denoted by a bolt that possibly once held a trig. point. But wait, what’s that odd looking grassy hill over there?
Better visit both tops, but first – enjoy the view.
According to my GPS, the grassy hill was 1m higher, but these measurements cannot be trusted. In any case, I had definitely been to the top of Tjofjell!
From here, I had a good view towards Haukånipa – that we visited earlier in the day.
Now, time for descent and joining the others…
Trip statistics: 5,4km, 400 vertical meters, 1h:29m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Evening at Klauvene, May 18 2019
Back at the cabin, the others had already started to prepare for dinner. Jan and Anne May served barbeque salmon. Yum!
After the nice dinner, we moved closer to the water for dessert.
It had been a long, long day for Karma…
Later on, Anne decided to take the Kayak out for a trip. Too bad to have brought it all the way out here, and not use it.
And late evening, we went for a walk along an old tractor road where we could enjoy a 96,6% full moon…
Yet another mighty fine day had come to an end…
Pictures (Canon 80D):
