Finally back on a 2000m peak…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 06.09.25 | Tverrådalskyrkja | 2088m | 618m | Skjåk/Luster, Norway | – | MAP |
Saturday: It all began with Anne, Lena and Tordis planning a 3-day hike from Sognefjellshytta, to Skogadalsbøen and Vettismorki, before going down to Hjelle, where Anne would have her car. The spouses – Terje, Geir and I decided to hike Tverrådalskyrkja – a beautiful top none of us had been to before.
This project needed some planning in terms of transport. Anne drove her car to Hjelle on Friday afternoon.
Then we sat course for Tindevegen and Sognefjellshytta. We were quite surprised to find the road closed. But then we found out that it opened up every hour. We were “lucky”, with only 30 minutes to wait. It could have been 55 minutes…
I wanted to do a short hike up to Berdalsnosi (1345m), but the weather was so unpleasant that we just kept on driving to Sognefjellshytta.
The others drove from Ulsteinvik to their neighbour cabins on Strynefjellet and while Geir waited in their cabin, Terje drove Lena and Tordis to Sognefjellshytta and left his car there. Terje and I joined the girls for dinner before going to Strynefjellet base-camp.
Terje rode shotgun as we drove to his cabin at Strynefjellet. Then we walked up to Geir and fined-tuned our plan for our hike the following day. I spent the night at Terje’s cabin.
On Saturday morning, we drove to Sota sæter. At 9:32am, we started walking, assuming the girls would be leaving Sognefjellshytta around the same time. They did, around 15 minutes later…
There was fog on the mountain, but we hoped that things would change while were heading up the forest.
The path was easy to hike.
Once above the tree line, we stopped for a short break.
Moving on, there were definitely positive signs on the mountain.
We had a nice hike up Tverrådalen valley.
Then we ascended to the Steindalen valley.
The first part of Steindalen was easy enough. The fog was clearly lifting, and we were gradually closing in on the mountain.
We had to cross a river, but it wasn’t a difficult crossing.
As we were passing below the north top, it was just a matter of time before the fog had left the mountain completely.
At lake 1400m, we passed a couple that had taken a break.
Even in this rocky terrain, the path was well marked. How could this go wrong?
Then we got the main summit in view, and I guess the concentration dropped a bit.
We were still on the route, but in rocky and unpleasant terrain.
In other words, so far so good. Except that it’s been a long time since I carried a moderately heavy backpack and I had an emerging headache. My neck muscles don’t like backpacks, so for the most part I am carrying a hip pack. But I couldn’t fit the gear I needed for survival into a hip pack, and survival gear is important when hiking 2000m peaks.
We were now moving into cumbersome terrain. Blindfolded, I would have known that we were approaching a glacier.
When we got the glacier in view, we had lost track of the route. We just assumed that it was no longer marked, because of the glacier. Hence, we made the dumb decision to hike on the right-hand side of the lake, above the ice and below the rock wall.
What was dumb about it, was the apparent danger of exposing ourselves to rockfall. The rocks below the wall were resting on loose gravel and when rocks fell, it scared us properly.
We moved over to the ice, partly on it and partly along rocks. The only reason for not putting the crampons on, was that we thought we would begin the ascent “just around the corner”
It took a while to get to “the corner” and the first part was cumbersome. There was no danger of rockfall here, but the rocks were loose and could not be trusted.
Finally, we were on the ridge leading to the top and looked forward to easier hiking.
While the rocks felt firmly seated, it was steep, and Terje got issues with his hip muscles.
Personally, I believe he might have considered calling it a day, but he grinded his teeth and kept on going.
Geir was doing OK, so was I, except for the headache, that had gone from emerging to dominating.
I was ahead of the others and walked over to the north ridge to take a picture. To my surprise, I was looking down on a guy. He was one of two climbers coming up the north ridge.
I then joined the others, and we celebrated being on top of a mighty fine peak.
The views were quite alright!
I *especially* loved the view towards the Jostedalsbreen glacier…
My camera was running hot…
We had discussed the option of hiking over to Søre Tverrådalskyrka (2034m) if we had the time. We had the time and so we started walking.
Then, to my surprise, I saw Geir turn around.
When Terje came up to me, he said that Geir wasn’t totally comfortable and decided to head back up.
If we had blue sky and sunshine, I think I would have gone by myself, or with Terje – if he felt his hip muscles allowed for this detour. But with the fog hammering on the mountain, I decided that it would be a huge benefit if we could descend without fog. So, we turned around.
The fact that Søre Tverrådalskyrkja wasn’t a pf100 top made the decision quite easy. But in the end, we were together on this and we should stick together.
So, we headed back down. Terje didn’t have any problems during the descent, except for a stiff neck and a light headache, that I shared with him. Except that my headache was probably 10x his.
I know Terje hated the rocky terrain leading down to the glacier and that he was mighty glad when he finally could step on the glacier.
One thing was for certain – crampons on!
Terje had a very good suggestion. We would cross the glacier and pass the lake on the other side. Much easier terrain!
The rest of the hike back to the trailhead was torture for Terje and me, for different reasons. Terje had aching knees, I had an aching skull. Eventually, Geir admitted that not everything was perfect for him either.
I could have sworn that the route back was twice the distance of the route up.
8,5 hours after leaving, we returned to the trailhead. All culinary aspirations were put aside, and we agreed that mashed potatoes and sausages for dinner would do just fine. Given my headache, I wasn’t even sure if I would be able to attend.
We stopped at the Dønfoss store and Terje and Geir went in. I stayed in the car. Back at Terje’s cabin, I decided to spend 20 minutes in the car while he was showering. I had some neck exercises to do and eventually, the headache passed.
The dinner tasted heavenly!
I went to bed 9:30pm. I don’t know how long Terje stayed up, but I slept like a log through the night.
Trip statistics: 22,1km, 1580 vertical meters, 8h:30m
