Location: In Bergen, visible from the city centre.
Location: North 60:22.589, East 005:25.210
Climbed Many times 1986-2008.
Information:
How to get there:
There are many trails. One can walk from downtown Bergen, one can take
a gondola ride. A popular starting point is the youth hostel named Montana.
A more comprehensive description is available
on Arnt's
Mountain page.
This description starts at Natlandsfjellet. One can drive up the road Natlandsfjellet
from the road Natlandsveien (coming from Landås or Haukeland), by making a left
turn just after the Hydro-Texaco gas station. Turn left again into Nordre Natlandsfjellet
and continue until the road is level and starts turning right near a large apartment
building. Park on the left side, the lighted track starts from this location. Route description:
This description covers the route from my house to Fløyen, thus traversing
the entire mountain plateau. The highest point, called Haugavarden can be easily reached
from this route.
From Natlandsfjellet, there is a lighted track that heads up to the nice lake
Nubbevann, the lighted trail heads down towards Montana, while the route forks right and
climbs the "Korketrekker", a shallow gully on the south slope above. Further up, the slope
eases and heads towards the Ulriken radio/tv antenna. This is also the top station of
the gondola that starts near the University hospital, Haukeland.
The route does not go left to this tower, rather continues straight ahead and climbs the
distinct ridge from the TV tower to the hut "Turnerhytten". This hut is normally open on
weekends and sells sweets as well as hot and cold drinks.
Before reaching this hut, our trail turns left and enters the main plateau called "Vidden".
After a short hike along this trail, now marked with huge cairns, one can reach Haugavarden,
the highest point off to the right. A short side trip brings you there.
Continue along the main trail as it crosses the fairly level plateau. Another distinct
high point is visible to your left, this is Storhaugen 662 meter, with a large cairn.
After a while you
will reach a very distict gap, Borgaskardet, this formally marks the end of "Vidden".
On the other side, the trail climbs gently onto a very distinct ridge called Vardeggi (637m).
The summer trail follows this ridge towards the north-west, there is a war memorial off the
main trail to the hikers left, before the trail descends more steeply to the lake
Øvre Jordalsvatnet (468m). However, when skiing one should ski off the ridge
to the north (right side) and descend the gentle valley to the same lake. The best
place to ski a nice slope is actually to get off the ridge pretty early and ski down to
the lake Borgastemma (556m). From here, gently climb the saddle to north-west and
join the route described earlier.
From the lake Øvre Jordalsvatnet, the route continues to Jordalsskardet, contours left and
descends to the saddle before Rundemannen (453m). Climb Rundemannen with a very noticable antenna tower
on the summit. This mountain is 568 meter, so your vertical climb is about 100 meter. There is a
service road that heads down to Brushytten from here. However, in winter, the best ski route
continues south from Rundemannen and east of the lake Tindvatna (520m). The route descends around the
south side of Blåmannen and connects with Brushytten from the south-east. From Brushytten, the
best ski route follows a lighted ski track that starts out north, then loops counter clockwise and
joins the summer route closer to Fløyen. From Fløyen one may take the Funicular down
to the city center.
I normally ski off to the left before Fløyen, down to the small lake Skomakerdiket (318m), then down
to Skansemyern (180m), where there is a road. Comments:
I have hiked this mountain many times, alone, with friends and visitors, with
my sons and as a family hike.
One should know that this mountain can be pretty serious in bad weather. Once on the plateau,
the conditions can be about as bad as on higher mountains elsewhere. There are many steep sides, so
hikers must know how to navigate safely. This is one of only very few places where I have skied
in a circle in fog with extremely limited visibility. Pål Jørgen and I tried to ski
across one evening in January, but were turned back by a strong winter storm.
Below are some pictures from the first part of a ski trip along the route described above, taken
on February 1. 2004.