Summer vacation, day 15
Continued from day 14
| Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location |
| Reinebringen | 666m | 114m | Moskenes, Norway |
Sunday, and the time had come to go to Reine. Anne would be working with colleagues from the new Lofotodden National Park for a couple of days. But first, breakfast from our excellent “base-camp” near Myrland with view towards Himmeltindan.
Later in the morning, we arrived at Reine. Clearly, one of the most beautiful places in Norway. If you ever go to Norway once in your life, consider this place.
We would get a break from the RV a couple of days, as we had reserved a Rorbu during our stay. But first, we would hike Reinebringen – one of Norway’s most visited mountain tops during summer. Number of visitors in a single day can exceed 1000!
We’re normally not in the habit of following the tourist routes, but we wanted to see the stairway running almost up to the ridge, built by Sherpas.
We had to drive all the way to the bridge across Djupfjorden before we found a place to park. This meant 1,3km along E10, but it didn’t matter much. We were on our way up a mountain that would deliver first class views!
The stairway was of the quality you can expect from Sherpas. Top notch!
It was an incredibly hot day and Karma really struggled with the heat. She went for shelter anywhere she could find it.
Eventually, we reached the ridge. The path to the point 448m looked a little bit exposed for bringing Karma, so we decided to visit the viewpoint separately. Instead of following the path, we took the scrambling route.
From the 448m viewpoint, we could look straight down on Reine.
We could also see our rented Rorbu on Olnilsøya island.
There were people everywhere, and it was difficult to find the perfect spot for photography. So we just settled for what we could find.
Of course, I wanted to visit the high point, which I thought was just a bit further up the ridge. So, we went for it.
There was one place where we had to help each other getting the dog up. Then followed easy street for a while…
Then we noticed a slab section near the top of the ridge. It looked a bit tricky and exposed, but at least we ought to give it a try.
Our effort was successful, and we reached the top of the ridge – at 615m. We had already understood that this was not the 666m high point. That was 350 meters to the northwest, with an an exposed ridge in between.
Up from this exposed ridge came Marcus, who had a consider-your-future moment halfway across. He found the ridge a little too intimidating for his taste and wondered if we were heading across, feeling that company would have been nice! As we couldn’t take Karma, Anne volunteered to stay behind while Marcus and I headed off.
The ridge resembled the ridge to Romedalstinden on Sunnmøre, and I felt right at home!
Anne was observing us, probably a little concerned…
The scrambling was BIG FUN! Then we came to a point where we had to get off the ridge and down to the path below. Not being a tall guy, my reach isn’t all that good. So I tossed a sling around a rock to make sure I didn’t stumble and fall 600m down to Djupfjorden. Marcus made a mental note that a sling is something one definitely could bring in this part of Norway.
Once on the safe side, we walked up to the 666m high point on Reinebringen. On peakbook.org, this point is called Reinekallen. I am not sure where they got this name from.
The path continued towards Austerdalsfjellet, but it wasn’t clear how it connected from up here. After a little research, we learned that it’s fairly easy to continue from point 666m and up to point 730m on Austerdalsfjellet.
It was time to return to Anne and we had big fun scrambling across the ridge one more time.
Marcus gave me a helping hand in getting Karma down the slab section and soon we were on our way down the ridge.
Back at the tourist spot, we noticed a woman crawling the final section up to the ridge. With dozens of hikers walking up and down around her. When vertigo hits, it hits hard. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her.
The descent went fine and once we were back at the car, we sat course for Olnilsøy island and our rented Rorbu. The place was just FINE and we had an incredible view from here. This would certainly be a good stay!
Late in the evening, my cousin Mia and her daughter Lina (16) stopped by. They came with the ferry from Bodø. I hadn’t seen Mia for 20 years and subsequently – never seen Lina. It was a very nice meeting, and I got a chance to meet them again the next day.
Trip statistics: 7,4km, 720 vertical meters, 4h:08m
Pictures from the trip (Canon EOS RP/Iphone8):
