One of the Helgeland coastline majesties!
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | MAP |
| 01.07.14 | Hjarttinden | 967m | 967m | Lurøy, Norway | MAP |
Continued from: Rødøyløva, June 30 2014
After moving around on the Helgeland coastline with Bjørn Eirik for a week, it was just Anne, Karma and me. Bjørn Eirik would kayak back to Onøy and pick up his car, while Anne and I were heading for Aldra.
The express boat left early – 6:10am and we got up at 5 to break camp. I like to be early (rather than late) in these situations and the time was 5:40am when we headed for the harbor.
Then a car came towards us. The guy driving it told us that the express boat was going in the opposite direction today, which meant the boat came earlier than planned. The captain had called this guy and asked him to find the two tourists (us) that had called the day before, asking for pickup.
We got a free sightseeing cruise which ended on Tonnes, where we had to get off. Due to fog, we didn’t see that much.
Approx. one hour after leaving Tonnes, we arrived on Aldra.
Our main goal was not to visit the island, but to hike the island high point – Hjarttinden.
The first leg was a 5km walk to the Hjart farm.
At Hjart, we found a path, but after a while we lost sight of it.
As we no longer had a path to follow, the hike got hard…
We had known all week that we would be hiking this top, and we had noticed a couloir that we had decided to follow, in case there wasn’t a path. Due to the fog, it was difficult to see the couloir.
Fortunately, the fog began to lift…
As the fog lifted, we were able to find the couloir.
The ascent was strenuous for all three of us!
Getting out of the couloir and above the fog was a massive boost for the morale!
We were far from up yet, but at least we could start smiling…
The terrain was wild – in all directions!
Now, we were only the “victory lap” from the top…
We could see all of the tops we had hiked (and climbed) for the past week.
Trænstaven (on Træna) is 46,2km west/northwest of Hjarttinden.
Liatinden was not on our to-do list this summer, and I really hope we can visit it one day. It looks awesome!
Jotunheimen, Sunnmøre alps, Lyngen alps – all wonderful alpine ranges. But all peaks look alike (very generally speaking). This is how the Helgeland coastline is unique. No mountains look like other mountains…
Then Karma spotted a bird…
There were sheep too, but Karma didn’t pay them much attention.
And there was Hestmannen also! Visited a couple of days earlier…
I just could not stop taking pictures…
And finally, we were up! 3,5 hours after heading out from the pier. Big joy!
Hjarttinden is #101 on the list of Norwegian tops, ranked by their prominence. With its 967m above sea level, the prominence is also 967m.
In the visitor register, we found names we know well!
Across Aldersundet, we could see Store Strandtinden, which we planned to visit the next day.
It was just fantastic to be up here!
But eventually, it was time to get back down. We had places to go…
The descent was way easier than the ascent. Besides the fact that we were going downhill, the absence of fog made it easier to make better choices along the way.
While there were no tricky or difficult parts, Hjarttinden was a “complex” mountain to hike. Both ways.
The boulder was a true pleasure, compared to ANY route through the bush…
We were quite pleased when we were down by Hjart…
The 5km back to the harbor felt like 10…
Eventually, we returned to our starting point…
We got an offer to get across Aldersundet (0,8km), but as we didn’t have any clear plan on how to get from the other side and back to Stokkvågen (where Anne’s car was parked), we decided to wait for Lurøyekspressen.
Lurøyekspressen came and took us the wrong way – away from the shore.
And then we were cruising again…
It was mighty nice to look back on Hjarttinden and know that we stood on top just a little while ago…
We left the boat at Indre Kvarøy and waited for Nordlandsekspressen to take us to Stokkvågen.
You don’t see many cars on Kvarøy, but wheelbarrows and bikes are plentyful.
Finally, Nordlandsekpressen came and took us back to Stokkvågen.
As mentioned, our goal for the next day was Store Strandtinden – at the time the highest top in Lurøy, Rødøy and Rana.
We were surely living the good life!
It felt a bit strange to get back to the car. We had gotten so accustomed to traveling by boat. But, traveling would be easier for sure. We then drove back to Aldersundet and then up to lake Vassvatnet, where we found a campsite that wasn’t exactly cozy.
But if the campsite lacked charm, the surroundings were top notch!
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
Continued on: Store Strandtinden, July 2 2014
