One last hike back home, before Sogndal
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 01.08.24 | Svartetua | 842m | 449m | Vanylven, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Thursday: And then came August. I hoped it would be a good month. Little did I know then that I would be spending half the month on a bike, instead of hiking…
After work, I decided to drive to Vanylven to hike Svartetua along a new route – from the west. But when I got to the trailhead (near Tunheimshornet) I concluded that I didn’t want to hike from here. I didn’t like the terrain. So, I drove back a little in the direction of Eidså, to hike from the same place we did back in 2019.
In 5 years, I had forgotten everything about the lower part of the route.
So, I was somewhat surprised when I found a long tractor road. Which was a bonus, of course. Hiking got easier. Anything that could help my troubled knee was a bonus.
After the tractor road ended, we had to go through wet and not so pleasant terrain.
When we got higher, the ground was more solid, and I looked forward to getting onto the mountain plateau.
Near lake Ringefjellsvatnet, I got a little confused by the signposts, which pointed me in the wrong direction. But then I understood that the path was curving around the lake. In 2019, we went straight up to Røstallen and so this was the first time we were *here*.
Once on the other side of the lake, the path took us in the right direction.
On our way up the ridge, we passed a cairn. Karma was really confused as to why she didn’t get any treats here.
And we moved on…
This isn’t my favorite part of Vanylven, to be honest. But it’s nice to come back here every now and then.
The top of Svartetua was gradually getting closer.
The summit plateau on Svartetua is really confusing me. Since I hiked this mountain the first time, I’ve been convinced that the rock where the signpost is, isn’t the high point.
I always thought that the high point is 70-80m closer to Syvden.
But now I’m not so sure anymore. According to hoydedata.no, the entire summit plateau is in the range 842,2-842,5m. But most likely, the point closer to Syvden is maybe 2-3cm higher. It all depends on how accurate they measured the rock where the signpost is.
Anyway, stuff for nerds. Although it matters 😉
It was time to get back down, and given Karma’s recent limping and my bad knee, there was no way we would be going off-trail. We would return the way we came. For certain!
I guess a circuit broke, or something. Because all of a sudden, we were on our way down the north ridge. Along a path, so we were good for now. But what was I thinking? Where were we going?
I don’t like going up and down the same route. I like round trips. It can’t be helped…
As I had forgotten most about my 2019 hike, I had also forgotten that we made a really poor route decision and crossed the valley (off-trail) below the Taksetvatna lakes. And because of my short-term memory, I did the same mistake again.
The terrain was awful!
Adding to the pain was there was a shooting range near the trailhead. I guess I knew about it but had completely forgotten about it. It was constant shooting from down there and Karma was very, very uneasy about it.
If I could decide things for just one day, one of those rules would be to move the shooting ranges underground or indoors…
But what was even more awful was the birch forest closer to the main road. I had imagined a birch forest with solid ground, but it was a birch forest with super-wet, boggy ground. Terrain for cows. I ran out of swearing words in my own dialect and had to switch to a dialect from northern Norway, which is far more … expressive.
But finally, we made it back to the main road, and I swear on my life – I’ll never do that route again.
Trip statistics: 11,3km, 830 vertical meters, 2h:55m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
