Didnojiehkki

  • Didnojiehkki
  • 1544 m
  • Primary factor 1051 m
  • Location: North 69:16.378, East 020:08.611 (GPS at the summit).
  • Troms, Norway
  • Difficulty, YDS class 2+
  • Climbed on September 19. 2010

Information:

How to get there: From Tromsø, drive to Nordkjosbotn and turn north on Hwy. E-6. Drive approxiately 30 kilometer north on E-6, pay attention as you approach the small place Elsnes, first a small road heads uphill on your right, shortly thereafter there is a small turnout (space for one car) on your right hand side and a trail heads uphill fro this spot. This location is N69:20.064, E020:03.048, elevation about 40 meter. Turn off the Hwy. here and park.
Route description: Head uphill along the nice trail, first climbing moderately, then more steeply before it levels off at about 160 meter of elevation. Continue to follow the trail as it enters the Elnes valley. After approximately 2.5 kilometer, the trail closes in on the river, this is shortly after you have descended slightly from a small ridge and subsequently crossed a small meadow. Leave the trail and cross the creek that comes down from the Reppidalen valley. Continue uphill on what turns into a pretty distinct ridge, you will have a small, but clear gully running down on your left hand side. This ridge extends uphill to location N69:18.791, E020:05.281, elevation about 620 meter, where the ridge shifts a little right. Continue uphill and climb a somewhat steeper step to reach location N69:18.491, E020:05.012, elevation about 970 meter. From here, the last and steepest part of the ridge begins. Proceed uphill towards the cliffs higher up, traverse a bit left and gain the plateau at location N69:18.297, E020:05.098, elevation 1205 meter. This last section has pretty loose rocks and care is needed, but there is no climbing.
From here, the route is essentially on flat and rocky terrain, but the rocks are generally small and provide good footing. Proceed south-east and pass the local tops Sommarfjellet (1493m) and Point 1540 on your left hand side. From the broad saddle between Point 1540 and the summit, ascend the final, gentle slope to the summit of Didnojiehkki. Late in summer/fall, this slope may be blue ice and crampons can be helpful.
Note: It appears that the ice dome Didnojiehkki is melting fast. previous and current maps give the elevation 1562 meter, however, in September 2010, GPS measurements showed only 1544 meter. This is also consistent with a GPS measurement performed a few weeks earlier. If this trend continues, Point 1540 may become the highest point on this massive mountain. It should also be noted that Didnojiehkki was the highest point in this general area and therefore commanded a prominence exceeding 1000 meter. This distinction has now shifted to the mountain Mannfjellet, elevation 1552 meter.
Comments: After a great, but fairly heavy climb of Trollvasstinden on Saturday, we had decided to try climbing Didnojiehkki, the following day. We stayed in Trollhytta and left pretty early after a nice breakfast (egg and bacon).
We drove via Lyngseidet and observed the recent landslide that sent several houses into the sea. Arriving at the trailhead shortly before 0800, we felt that we were on schedule for another long climb.
The weather was overcast, but with a nice view of the lower part of the mountain. The fall colors in shades of yellow and brown providing a fantastic frame of a most beautiful landscape. We climbed the ridge and were pleasantly surprised to see how high up the soft (to walk on) vegetation extended. Some short section of more loose rocks and we topped out on the flat mountain plateau at 1130 (3.5 hours).
From here, we experienced fog and then it started to snow. The seemingly endless landscape of flat rocks just carried on. We finally hit the glacier, it was blue ice with a thin layer of new snow. Not very steep, but slippery. We put on crampons and walked to the highest point, arriving at 1345. Big surprise as our GPS units both gave an elevation of 1543 to 1544 meter, a significant difference from the 1562 map elevation. We headed back down around 1400, as we had no view and it quickly felt pretty cold to just linger around. When we made a brief stop at the edge of the plateau, we observed a stoat (Mustela erminea), very curious, it seemed like he had never seen a human before. Descending, we had great views of the valley below and the very impressive Reppifjellet straight across. The formations are similar, very steep sides and a large, fairly flat mountain plateau. The ridge extended down below us and the colors grew richer as more plants and trees could contribute. We kept a somewhat higher pace and reached the car by 1830.
Dinner at Nordkjosbotn, a beer at Egon in Tromsø, then an early morning departure to Oslo where a meeting was scheduled at the airport, starting 0930.

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