Summer vacation, day 1
Tops and places visited
| Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| Vålåsjøhøe, Øst | 1400m | 100m | Dovre, Norway | |
| Tverrfjellet | 1248m | 75m | Dovre, Norway | WCP |
Finally – summer vacation. I hadn’t looked especially forward to it – low on energy in the past weeks as I was. But on the other hand, I hoped that going into “the unknown” (we had just planned 3 weeks on the road) would boost some energy.
Due to Covid-19, it had been impossible to plan our “base-camps” months ahead of time. Thus, we ended up renting a RV, probably the last one available in the country. “All” Norwegians would hit the roads this summer, and many of them going north – as we were.
We left Gurskøy Sunday morning rather late in the day and followed the main roads, first E39 to Romsdalsfjorden and E136 to Åndalsnes. We had never driven a RV before and driving it sucked! But the upside was that we had no problems keeping up with the general traffic. One more prejudice taken off my list! It’s not the car, it’s the driver. And, I didn’t know that waving hands to fellow RV drivers was a thing, and I hated it when we were waved at. “Please! Don’t wave your hand – we’re not one of you!“
We took turns driving and had our first break below the Trollveggen wall.
We hit the E6 at Dombås and continued up to Hjerkinn (Dovrefjell) where we found an OK place to park for the night.
The evening hike was only meant to go to Geitberget, but on the way, I talked Anne into coming with me towards Vålåsjøhøe. At that point in time, I hadn’t fully realized how far that walk would be.
We followed the ridge upwards and had a nice view towards the Dovrefjell 2000m mountains.
We met a guy who told us that it wasn’t unlikely that we could spot Moskusfe (bison), but unfortunately we didn’t. At point 1331m, Anne decided that Vålåsjøhøe was a too long walk this late in the evening and that she wanted to get familiar with the car, the oven, the water, heating, etc. She returned to the car with Karma while I decided to hike a little bit longer.
At point 1400m (the east top), I realized that the main Vålåsjøhøe top (1407m) was too far away (still 4km away, plus the hike back) and decided to set the course for the car.
My return route went straight north from 1400m to Tverrfjellet, where there is an indoors panorama viewpoint.
We’ve been here before, but it’s quite cool.
Instead of following the gravel road down from Tverrfjellet, I followed the ridge to the northeast and was able to follow a path all the way down to the public parking lot.
Back at the car, Anne had now become the car expert and soon later, we could enjoy our first dinner in the car.
As much as I hated driving the darn thing, I soon found that I would love the evenings. Karma found peace and harmony in her bed below the dining table and we slept like logs.
Trip statistics: 7,9km, 480 vertical meters, 2h:08m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone8) from the hike:
