Just epic…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | MAP |
| 25.06.23 | Bukkaholten | 1524m | 154m | Sogndal, Norway | MAP |
| 25.06.23 | Blånipa west top | 1457m | 50m | Sogndal, Norway | MAP |
| 25.06.23 | Blånipa | 1470m | 106m | Sogndal, Norway | MAP |
| 25.06.23 | Point 1441m | 1441m | 51m | Sogndal, Norway | MAP |
| 25.06.23 | Troget | 1556m | 236m | Sogndal, Norway | MAP |
Sunday: When 2023 is summarized, this ski-trip will most likely stand out as the #1 ski-trip. I had been thinking about this round-trip in the outskirts of the Jostedalsbreen glacier for many years and today I got the opportunity!
Anne was quite happy about the hiking on Friday and Saturday and proposed that I’d go on a trip of my own, while she looked after Karma. My thoughts immediately went to these tops. The only question was – should I go hiking or should I bring my mountain skis? I chose to bring the skis, having a strong feeling that it would be worth while carrying them 1000 meters up the mountain.
I found parking on the south side just before the eastern entrance to the Fjærlandstunnelen tunnel. I’ve passed this parking hundreds of times without knowing about it. But now that Anne told me what to look for, I was prepared!
The signpost to follow was “Kvitevardane”. Those were humps on the high ridge, but I didn’t plan to pass them on this trip. The forest was dense, the path was slightly challenging to follow (due to high grass). Taking a pause was impossible due to insect attacks…
But – seeing Blånipa above made my motivation stay super-high! One thing was for sure, I had my work cut out!
Then I passed “Andersbenken” – a bench in memory of Anders J. Bøyum – a local mountain legend, whom I had the pleasure to meet a few years ago.
The path switched back and forth on ridges and became sort of predictable after a while. That said, it would be impossible to get up or down this mountain without this path.
At 930m, I reached snow. Now was the time to pull out my new, light mountain skis with short skins.
I have to admit there were a lot of switchbacks in the beginning… But holy cow – how delightful!
After a while, I reached the high ridge and could set my focus on the first top – Bukkaholten.
From Bukkaholten, I had a good view towards my next goal – Blånipa. This top looks impressive from the valley, but not so much from this angle. That said, the ridge was supposedly sharp in places. I looked forward to getting over there and see for myself.
I did enjoy the view towards the southwest. I had been to most – if not all – on these tops. Been there, done that!
Back to Blånipa – I decided to ski as far as I could and hike from there.
I passed the west top and could see for myself that the main ridge was indeed sharp in places. Fortunately, there were ways to get around the roughest part of the ridge on the right-hand side. That said, I was sort of glad Karma wasn’t here. I would have gotten her up, but with some … guidance…
From Blånipa, I could enjoy the valley views in full!
Now the question was, should I also visit Troget? This trip was already long and hard and strenuous, but just the thought of making this ascent one more time – just for Troget? Nah, I would definitely visit that top too!
I went across the Blånipa ridge, and then skiing up to point 1441m, where the number of vertical meters down to the Troget pass took me by surprise. I had thought this was just a “bump in the road”, but I had to descend more than 100 meters.
And then I could begin the climb towards Troget…
What I didn’t realize, was that this high ridge was leading all the way to Jostefonn, visited in 2004 and still being one of the most memorable ski-trips I’ve ever done.
When I reached the top, I “treated myself” with a proper panorama picture from the top.
It was tempting to spend time on putting names on all the tops, but the backlog is just way too big already…
It was due time for returning. I skied down from Troget, and partly up to point 1441m and then carrying the skis to the top. Then followed another short ski-descent to the pass between Bukkaholten and Blånipa.
I was now crossing my old tracks – which had started to faint due to the high temperature. I stayed at 1480m elevation, instead of skiing across Bukkenibba.
Eventually, I rejoined my ascent route and hoped that my tracks were visible all the way to the point where I put the skis on. They weren’t really, but I could see bits and pieces of them, enough to locate the point where I came up on foot.
It wasn’t hard to follow the path down the forest. It was well marked (red paint) and I put in enough focus to not wander astray.
Eventually, I was back at the car – incredibly happy about the trip and looked forward to returning to Anne and Karma. And when Anne had prepared dinner, served outside, the day couldn’t be better. Or could it? Was there a cold beer in the fridge? Yes? OK, then the day definitely couldn’t be better!
Trip statistics: 23,9km, 2160 vertical meters, 7h:52m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
