Easter vacation: day 11
Index
| 20.04.25 | Randsfjorden, Hov | – | – | Søndre Land, Norway | – | MAP |
| 20.04.25 | Dalavardin | 989m | 177m | Etnedal, Norway | – | MAP |
Randsfjorden, Hov, Apr 20 2025
Sunday: It was time to leave our most excellent basecamp in Hov, Søndre Land. But before we left Hov, Anne wanted to join her family in church for the baptism of the youngest addition to her local family.
I should probably have been there too. But I’m not a man of the church and feel really out of place there. Instead, I decided to walk Karma, rather than letting her stay in the warm car for 1,5 hours.
We did a loop down by Randsfjorden.
After a while, Karma got bored, and we drove back to the church where I had all doors open and Karma had good ventilation. I spent half an hour listening to Sissel’s magnificent “Slow down” performance along with the Tabernacle choir from 2019, plus a number of reactions. I know Sissel’s voice of course, her being Norwegian and all. And we all know it’s a voice straight out of heaven, but this very performance – is probably the most beautiful thing I’ve ever heard. Check it out. I’m sure you won’t regret it!
Trip statistics: 1,6km, 40 vertical meters, 0h:26m
Dalavardin (989m), Apr 20 2025
Sunday: Finally, Anne was done in church, and we could get going. I had of course a mountain top that a) had a prominence > 100m, b) would not a cause a long detour, c) not involve too much snow for Karma and d) not too far for Anne. Dalavardin (aka Vardefjell) in Etnedal was the perfect choice and Anne liked the idea.
We drove up to the cabins near lake Garin. The trailhead was as high as 825m, so this wouldn’t be a very strenuous hike for sure. The only question was how much snow there would be.
There was snow all around us, but not along the road to Kristofferdalen.
From Kristofferdalen, we followed the forest & mountain path and thankfully, people had been hiking prior to us, so the snow was never a problem.
Karma got quite bored along the forest road and suggested multiple times that we should turn around. But when she got on the forest path, it all changed. Now, she was leading on.
The hike was short and easy, but that didn’t matter now. It was travel day and a mountain top on days like this is always a bonus.
The views were quite good. We recognized Spåtind and Rundemellen but apart from that, it was just a bunch of long plateaus and mountain ranges.
We took the same route back down and were quite hungry when we got back to the car.
We drove to Fagernes and had an early dinner at a café and afterwards, walked the dog around Vesleøye.
Afterwards, the plan was to return to Sogndal. I stopped at lake Vangsmjøse to take a picture (picture on top of page) and when I returned to the car, Anne wanted to spend the night on Filefjell and go skiing the next day.
After giving it a thought, I thought OK. Why not? Tomorrow was still a public holiday…
So, we stopped at Filefjellsstuene – a fairly new hotel near Tyinkrysset. They did have a room for us, as most of the Easter tourists – and there had been many – had left. So that’s where we called it a day…
Trip statistics: 5,1km, 200 vertical meters, 1h:19m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the Dalavardin hike:
