One of the Sogndalsdalen classics…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | MAP |
| 01.10.23 | Frudalshesten | 1554m | 24m | Sogndal, Norway | MAP |
| 01.10.23 | Frudalshesten | 1598m | 368m | Sogndal, Norway | MAP |
Sunday: Today, I wanted to visit a proper mountain top, and I soon started thinking about the Frudalsbreen glacier high point. I visited this mountain for the first time in 2014, with Anne.
One year later, we invited our friends Cathrine and Lars over from eastern Norway to ski some tops with us. Anne volunteered to be with Karma, so it was just Cathrine, Lars and me. We had a very nice ski-trip up Frudalsbreen. We also enjoyed beautiful snow down Vetledalen and to Berge, where Anne was picking us up. Sadly, Cathrine passed away a few years ago and we all miss her. I haven’t published this video of our descent before, as we’re not exactly demonstrating top notch skiing skills, but we still had darn fun!
Back to present, this morning I went down to Sogndalsfjøra to pick up Anne after her morning swim with friends. I hate cold water but will go into if when challenged. But only then.
While chatting with the others, they asked me where we were going today. I told them that I had planned to go up to Frudalsbreen and Anne quickly said she would join. I’m not so sure she would have said the same if I had asked her during breakfast 😉 Which is why I didn’t mention it earlier…
She figured she couldn’t back out from this and so, a while later we were on top of Sogndalsdalen, ready to head into Frubotnen.
There was one slight problem – there was fog in the mountains, and Frudalsbreen is not necessarily the place you want to go in fog. But I had hopes that the fog would lift, or be in transit…
The path into Frudalen isn’t half bad and we made steady progress up the valley.
Eventually, we arrived in Frudalsbotn and just had to decide on a way up the mountain.
We hade made good progress in terms of distance, but not in elevation gain. The hard work was about to begin.
We followed a vague path in the beginning, but soon we were off-trail, trying to find the best route up the mountain.
It was fun terrain, and moreover – didn’t it seem that the fog was gradually creeping up?
One thing was for certain – Karma had a great time, and cannot be called “an old lady” just yet…
There was no escape from the fog, though. Eventually, we had to deal with it.
When we reached Frudalshesten, Anne felt that this was good enough. Why stick around up here in the fog? My argument was simple – because we hadn’t reached the high point!
Anne came around after something to eat and we moved on towards Frudalsbreen. The fog wasn’t thick and she was quickly in good mood again.
Once we reached the snow and ice, it was just super-nice to be up here!
Karma simply couldn’t stop rolling and scratching. It was practically blue ice, and I was wondering what the joy was all about.
Although we were on top of the mountain plateau, the terrain between us and the high point was surprisingly rugged. At least, I couldn’t remember this from our hike 9 years ago.
Eventually, the high point appeared in front of us, rising out from the fog.
We didn’t have crampons or ice-axes but as long we could follow routes that didn’t include slopes, we were OK.
Soon after, we reached the top of Frudalsbreen. Big joy!
It was simply great to be up here, especially since the fog had given us a break.
But now, the fog was coming back and we decided to leave while we still had some sight.
This is “big country” for sure.
Going down, everything looked different. There was no chance we could retrace our steps in this rocky landscape, and I had to look at the GPS every now and then. There is no bravery in ending up in dangerous terrain…
Eventually, we got below the fog and could descend into Frudalsbotn and Frudalen.
It was a really, really good hike. I will remember it for a long time. But maybe not for nine years. Seems my memory bank is limited. Fortunately, I have off-line backup…
Thanks to Anne for coming along and not turning around at Frudalshesten!
Trip statistics: 16km, 1330 vertical meters, 6h:15m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
