Back in the Sunnfjord region
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | MAP |
| 28.06.23 | Gotdalsnipa | 1249m | 260m | Sunnfjord, Norway | MAP |
Wednesday: I was still in Sogndal, but after work, it was time to return to Sunnmøre. I looked at the map to determine where to walk the dog on our way home. I then noticed that I had completely forgotten about Gotdalsnipa in Jølster. With exception of Skjorta, Gotdalsnipa was the only pf100 top on the north side of lake Jølstravatnet that I hadn’t been to.
This was clearly a “bigger project” than I had been thinking about. I typically hike Orkja or Nyken when I pass through Skei. Both hikes are ~1 hour up and down. But the prospect of getting a new pf100 top made the idea very interesting.
The weather forecast wasn’t all that good, but rain is only rain, and it wasn’t supposed to rain a LOT. I drove to Ålhus and followed the road to Indrebø, where the toll road (“Dalevegen ØVREBØ”) begins. I had barely enough 4G to pay the fare with VIPPS. The NOK 50,- only bought us 1,4km before the road was closed for further driving. Oh well…
Next followed a 2,6km transport leg towards Gotdalsstøylen. The most part along a gravel road, the rest along a tractor road.
We passed a nice waterfall. It didn’t seem to have a name on the map.
Going up the (boring) road, I realized that we had been up here before. The terrain was familiar. And then I remembered that we hiked Syskarnipa from this road, back in 2016.
Eventually, we got Gotdalsnipa in view. There wasn’t a path on the map, so I expected that this would be off-trail project.
The time was 5:15pm when we passed Gotdalsstøylen. I had “allowed” 2,5 hours for this hike, and so far, we seemed to be on schedule.
I didn’t find any path and had to make sure we found the best route through the bush. Progress up the mountain was still good and soon we got a good view down to the valley.
The best route was clearly to follow Geitafossgrova to the ridge connecting Gotdalsnipa and Nonsnipa, but I was a bit impatient and turned north once we reached the upper valley. It seemed steep, but doable.
The route was for the most part OK, but in one steep section, I had to give Karma a helping hand.
When we finally reached snow, I was ready with the camera to capture her “roll”, but then a Ptarmigan took off and Karma completely forgot about the snow.
Once we got on the west ridge, the terrain got less steep and easier.
And then we reached the top of Gotdalsnipa!
Just as we reached the top, it started raining. The rain, combined with some wind made the stay on top a little unpleasant and so we moved on.
The descent would go down to the ridge towards Nonsnipa, and then down the valley. We had to take it nice and easy due to slippery rock and grass.
Eventually, we reached the point where we had gone straight up, and we more or less followed our ascent route down the forest. When we got back to the car, I saw that the hike had taken 2h:45m – 15 minutes longer than “planned”. No worries though. The time was 7:30pm and I would be home within 3 hours.
Trip statistics: 10,5km, 930 vertical meters, 2h:45m
