Back in the Nordfjordeid region
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | MAP |
| 20.08.23 | Storegga | 968m | 118m | Stad, Norway | MAP |
| 20.08.23 | Blåfjell | 923m | 99m | Stad, Norway | MAP |
| 20.08.23 | Point 936m | 936m | 61m | Stad, Norway | MAP |
Sunday: I was looking at the map to find an interesting hiking goal and ended up checking out the mountains north of Nordfjordeid. I was quite sure I had been to all the mountains with a prominence of 100 meters or more. Then I came across Blåfjell – which I hadn’t been to – and went … YES!
But let me first explain what prominence (aka primary factor, aka “pf”) really means:
You count the number of contours that completely encircles the mountain. If this number is equal to – or exceeds 100m, the mountain is considered as a proper mountain top. This applies to most countries outside the Himalayas and Andes – where the prominence has to be greater, maybe up to 400m. I’m not sure. This is de facto the only objective way to create a list of mountain tops.
On this picture, you can see the lowest contour completely encircling the mountain. This is the so-called “saddle”:
The rule can be described as: The mountain height *minus* the height of the lowest pass on the highest route towards a higher mountain.
So, when I looked at the map, I could see the map height of Blåfjell was 924m and that the 824m contour completely encircled the mountain. That’s 100 meters, and I promptly decided to drive down to Nordfjordeid!
I should have checked a little better, but more about that later…
I took the Volda – Folkestad ferry, and in Bjørkedalen I chose to drive the road across Bjørkedalseidet. It’s been quite a few years since I drove here the last time and the road was WAY smaller than I remembered it to be. But eventually, the Harpefossen ski-lift route that I had planned to hike, came into view.
I didn’t pay for the parking. I talked to some locals that told me that no one pays here in summer. I didn’t feel too bad, given that I had paid NOK 75, – in parking – for 5 minutes – at Ørsta Skisenter two days ago.
The ski-lift route seemed a little boring, but there was an adjacent path, which we followed.
I had been to Storegga twice before. The first time was on foot in Oct 2010 and the second time was on skis in Jan 2012 with Anne. When I spoke with Anne in the evening, she had no recollection of ever being on this mountain, and while I knew that I had hiked this mountain a long time ago, I had no recollection of skiing here. Either brain damage or too many hikes…
Karma was still thirsty, way out the ordinary, and spent a good while in the river…
Eventually, we reached the top of the ski-lift and could set course for the upper part of Storegga.
High on the mountain, I noticed that I had lost my lens cap. Aargh! I *hate* losing things! But OK, another “write-off” …
There were some cute details along the path…
There was also more water along the way…
And then we were on top of Storegga – Karma’s first visit here.
Next up was Blåfjell. A new pf100 top was awaiting!
The descent down to the pass was fairly easy, and so was the ascent up to Blåfjell. I was super-happy when we reached the top!
It was also interesting to see mountains that I felt belonged to a completely different mountain region so close…
But now what? Should we return the way we came or do a full circle? I didn’t have to think long and hard about this…
We would descend straight down to lake Blåfjellvatnet, from where we would hike across the 936m top on our way back to the ski-lift.
We found a path leading up to point 936m.
On our way back to the ski-lift, we hiked along lake Tjønndalsvatnet. When I passed the stone hut, the terrain looked very familiar. After thinking about it, Anne and I hiked Storetoren and Ljosuregga back in 2014!
At the south end of the lake Tjønndalsvatnet, we weren’t far away from the ridge we followed up to Storegga. I decided to go back up to the point where I realized that I had lost my lens cap. And after a few minutes, I found it!
When I got back home later in the afternoon, I checked hoydedata.no – a site I’ve recently discovered. The contours are supposed to be much more precise, from measuring heights with laser technology. And then I discovered that the mountain height wasn’t 924m, but 923,2m!
And while the “lowest point on the highest route to a higher mountain” was still 824m, this meant that the prominence of Blåfjell was 99m, not 100m.
Oh well. It was a good try, and I certainly didn’t regret taking the trip…
Trip statistics: 10,7km, 935 vertical meters, 3h:07m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
