Summer holiday, day 17 – Trøndelag
Index
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location |
| 20.07.22 | Fongen (Lopmesvaerie) | 1441m | 653m | Selbu/ Tydal/ Meråker, Norway |
| 20.07.22 | Tofjellet | 1055m | 116m | Meråker, Norway |
Continued from day 16…
Wednesday: After breakfast in our cabin at Nøsterlia, we drove up to lake Finnkoisjøen and parked there. On our way, we passed the normal trailhead for Ramsjøhytta, and many choose to hike Fongen via this hut– or even spend the night there.
From Finnkoisjøen, we followed a marked path towards Ramsjøhytta, but the plan was to leave this path just south of Ettfjellet.
It was raining light, but we had high hopes for better weather!
After a while, we left the trail and passed between Ettfjellet and point 891m before starting a long (off-trail) traverse into the valley below. We had Fongen in clear view already in the pass. We could also see Ramsjøhytta below us.
The good news was that it wasn’t raining any longer and the temperature was clearly on its way up!
Now we had to plan our ascent route. It was clear that we wanted to join the trail down in the valley, but how far did we want to follow it? All the way up to the pass between Ramfjellet and Fongen or should we just head straight for Fongen, on the steepest route possible. As the trail wasn’t all that good, we chose the latter.
The only problem was that along the steepest route, we risked disturbing the reindeer, cooling off on the few snow fields remaining. But we found a route where they should not find us as a disturbance. Karma was kept on a leash (except for when posing on pictures), but she would never have disobeyed rule #1 when walking without leash – never, ever leave my side.
When we got onto the Fongen northeast ridge, there were more reindeer and we had to zig-zag our way upwards, trying not to disturb them.
Eventually, we got the summit in view and on first glance – it looked far away! We still had 300 vertical meters to go, so it wasn’t really a huge surprise.
Small cairns indicated the general direction. And while helpful today, they would not be of much help in fog. Then you’re on your own and – hopefully – with your navigational devices, whether it’s a map and compass or a GPS.
We met 3 hikers coming off the summit. They reported a strong wind up there. And they weren’t wrong. Our Gore-Tex jackets had to come on just before the top.
We found a sheltered spot for lunch and were happy that the hardest part of the hike was over. So far, we had hiked a little more than 10km.
But we would not stay for long. The forecast for the evening was thunder and lightning and we didn’t want to be out hiking then.
We took the same route down to the valley, where we once again met the 3 hikers. Clearly, our steep route was also a short-cut.
Then we began a long and gradual ascent towards Tofjellet, hardly noticing the elevation gain. But from the small lakes just northwest of Tofjellet, we had to zig-zag again to stay clear of reindeer.
It felt extra good to reach Tofjellet, as there would not be any more uphill! Anne admitted that she was a bit tired and looked forward to going downhill, rather than uphill. And then it started raining again.
We descended between Tofjellet and Ettfjellet and the place was packed with reindeer. They didn’t pay too much attention to us, just moving enough to maintain a safe distance.
We then sat course for the southwest tip of lake Finnkoisjøen and joined our ascent route just 5 minutes before reaching the car by the dam.
We were truly happy about renting the cabin for 2 days. Now we could just drive back to the cabin, get cleaned up and relax. We jumped into lake Gammelvollsjøen (505m) and were back on land seconds later. It was freezing cold!
Afterwards, we went over to the Barbeque Hut and had a delightful meal. We enjoyed ourselves a lot!
But later in the evening, we noticed that Karma was limping. One thing was clear, she would not go hiking the day after and so we had to plan accordingly.
Trip statistics: 19,7km, 1000 vertical meters, 7h:15m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Continued on day 18…
