Another very memorable hike!
Summer vacation, day 17
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 21.07.24 | Geitinden (Gaajssnjurhtjie) | 1556m | 1110m | Hemnes/ Vefsn/ Hattfjelldal, Norway | – | MAP |
Sunday: Finally, the day had come for attempting Geittinden on the border of Hattfjelldal, Vefsn and Hemnes. Geittinden is the highest top in Vefsn and with a prominence of 1110m, it is the 38th highest ranked (based on prominence) in Norway.
I had been thinking about this peak for years and years and talked about every summer since I met Anne. This summer, all planets aligned, and the trip was on.
The weather forecast was gorgeous and as such (nice weather and long days), we decided to do this as a daytrip from Brønnøysund. We left 7:05am and arrived at the Stornesdalen trailhead by lake Røssvatnet (Norway’s 2nd largest freshwater lake) 2,5 hours later.
Along the way, we discovered that the upper part of the mountain massif was hidden in fog. Not good! This is a kind of mountain where you don’t want fog! But we stayed optimistic as the wind was quite strong. Maybe the wind would chase the fog away…
Trailhead preparations included sunscreen and bug spray. A horsefly landed on my arm. I sprayed it. It fell dead or unconscious to the ground. Perfect…
We left the trailhead 09:47, mentally prepared for what expected us in the forest – cumbersome terrain. I had uploaded a track (a descent route) that we decided to follow. Descent routes are in general better…
After a few minutes, we decided not to follow the track and sat course for lake Tustervatnet.
After approx. 1,7km along the lake, we looked at the track again and decided to follow it up through the forest.
The track made good sense and we avoided the worst bush fight.
But where would we top out? It wasn’t easy to tell at first, but gradually, we could see where the track was leading us. Effectively, the first opening the wall above us had to offer.
It felt really good to leave the forest behind…
When we got to lake 768/769m, the first part of the hike was officially completed, and we took a break to gather strength for the rest of the hike. We still had 800 vertical meters to go…
It was obvious that we should continue above the lake and below Litltinden.
The terrain was easy.
Then we got to the drain from lake 965m, and the crossing was super-easy near the very outlet from the lake.
Geittinden was now straight ahead of us, still with fog. But – with much less fog than a couple of hours ago!
The mountain side looked steep from a distance, but we found an easy route up to the north ridge.
I already mentioned the wind. For once, we liked it. It was here to chase the fog away…
I was a tad worried about a cliff high on the north ridge, but I couldn’t remember reading about any difficulties. I just crossed my fingers that we would get the dog up. In worst case, one of us would have to stay with the dog while the other summited. And then switch…
The ridge was partly straightforward, partly rugged – meaning we had to find ledges so that the dog could walk up.
Eventually, we reached the cliff I had seen from below and it all sorted itself nicely. The ridge was wider than I had pictured, and we had no problems whatsoever.
Then Karma got spooked by a pointy rock…
The summit took its time to present itself…
But eventually, we reached the top. Yeah! Geittinden!
The icing on the cake was that the fog now left the mountain and the views started to open up.
One landmark after the other appeared in the horizon. Visttindan, Finnknean, De Syv Søstre, Lukttindan, Okstindan …
When we reached the top, we could see two hikers leaving the top, heading down the south ridge. I don’t think they saw us. This mountain doesn’t get a whole lot of visits, so what are the odds of running into someone up here?
I love the Nordland mountains. There’s still so much to do and I am wondering if I’ll ever make it to Troms…
De Syv Søstre (the seven sisters) above Sandnessjøen would have been nicer to look at, without Norway’s largest wind park in front of them…
Being here, “nailed” my summer in the north. Oksskolten was great, but I had been there before. Solvågtinden was nice, but it didn’t have a prominence of 1000m or more. And then there was Kvigtinden, 1000m prominence mountain. That wasn’t enough to “save” the summer, but with Geittinden “in the bag”, 2024 would enter the list of summers I would remember without thinking very hard. It’s funny how these mental things goes…
Then it was time for the descent.
It was a bit sad to leave now that the fog had gone, but we had a long way back to Brønnøysund…
We stuck to our ascent route. This was not the place or time to become inventive…
Considering the fairly rugged terrain, we were doing a good job following our route without consulting the GPS track. OK, it was a ridge, and not very wide. Still, there were constantly choices to be made. Left or right…
This ridge would be quite cumbersome in fog!
There are 85 mountains in Norway (mainland) with a prominence > 1000m. Geittinden is one of them. I never had a goal to hike (or climb) all these mountains, but it feels “extra nice” whenever I have been to one of them. After Geittinden, I had been to 33 of the 85. I think I will focus on those in southern Norway. I have 3 left to do there. If it hadn’t been for melting glaciers, I would only have had 2 left to do…
I like this mountain area. I would definitely like to come back and visit Kjerringtinden and Brurskanken.
It was nice to get off the north ridge, which meant we didn’t have to focus so much on the terrain.
Sticking to our ascent route also meant passing lake 769m again…
Of course, we had to take a pause so Anne could get her swim…
As much as I want to come back here, there are so many other places to explore and I’m not getting younger. Maybe this was the first and only visit to these mountains.
Next up was the forest part. The upper part was sort of obvious, but I decided to check my GPS on two occasions further down. We had no interest in deviating from our route.
The forest part went well. When we got down to the lake, I was ahead of Anne and spent a minute looking for my lens cap, which I lost on my way up. I found it!
Then it was just the remaining part of the hike along the lake. It was important to avoid sand that looked tempting but were in fact “sink holes”.
7h:25m after leaving, we returned to the car. We drove a bit northbound, hoping to get a good view towards the peak we just had hiked, but the sun was behind it, and we didn’t get a good view (the picture on top of this report).
Anne wanted to tick “swimming in lake Røssvatnet” off her bucket list. We stopped by Straumen. Technically, she went swimming in lake Tustervatnet, but at the end of the day, it’s the same water…
Eventually, we drove back to Brønnøysund, only stopping in Hommelstø to visit family…
Trip statistics: 19,1km, 1430 vertical meters, 7h:25m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max/Samsung Galaxy) from the hike:
