Såtbakkollen

  • Såtbakkollen
  • 1840 m
  • Primary factor 950 m
  • Møre og Romsdal, Norway
  • Location: North 62:41.285, East 008:48.477 (GPS at the summit)
  • Difficulty: YDS class 3.
  • Climbed October 5. 2006.

Information:

How to get there: The trailhead is in Sunndalen. From the Sunndalsøra hotel, drive 15.7 kilometer in the direction towards Oppdal (up the valley). As you cross a bridge, pay attention and make a sharp right just after the hilltop. This small road has a sign for Hoås. Drive a few hundred meter as this road turns back and runs under the main Hwy. bridge. Do not drive under this bridge, park on your left just as you see the bridge ahead of you. This is the trailhead, location N62:37.893, E008:50.589, elevation 98 meter.
Note that this trailhead is new and therefore not marked on the map. The old trailhead is now closed.
Route description: From the trailhead (parking), continue along the road as it passes under the bridge. About one hundred meter further, just as the road gently curves left, locate signs for Innerdalen and the small, but clearly marked trail that leaves the road and heads uphill to your right.
The trail is marked with red "T" as well as small sticks along the first (new) section as it contours around a farmers field. Higher up, the trail climbs more steeply before merging with the old trail (coming from the right).
The trail continues steeply uphill with zig-zags. Eventually, it reaches a distinct (broad) shelf and heads left in a much more level fashion. You pass a small hut, contour elegantly around and enter the lower part of Tverrådalen, where the trail crosses the creek on a very nice natural bridge formed by two large pieces of rock.
From here, leave the trail and head directly up towards the first summit (1632 on the map). This summit is called Såtbakkollen on the map, generally agreed to be wrong. The terrain is easy with rocks on the final part before reaching the very flat summit. From here, you can see the summit and most, but not all of the remaining route. Continue across (minimal loss of elevation) to a slightly higher summit, then across a wide, but more distinct ridge to a third summit (location N62:40.453, E008:48.830, elevation 1687 meter) located on the ridge. From here, the ridge is more narrow and its final section, a deep notch followed by a steep section of rock, looks intimidating. However, things are not as bad as they may look. The scramble along the ridge is straightforward until you reach the notch. Carefully downclimb to the bottom (YDS class 3), then climb directly up the other side (also YDS class 3). The route is indicated on this picture.
From the top of the notch, continue on very easy terrain to the summit.
Note: An alternative (easier) route can be found if one enter the west side before the first summit at about 1500 meter of elevation, then cross up the somewhat steeper, but short section to the large and gentle area above, along a line that looks easy. This variation (avoiding the ridge) is likely YDS class 2 (off-trail hiking).
Comments: I did this climb with my son Pål Jørgen. We left the car at 0730 and hiked to the nice, natural bridge across the creek from Tverrådalen in approximately 2 hours. The view back into Sunndalen is truly impressive. We rested there, then climbed up on the first part of our mountain and traversed along the high ridge to the gentle summit plateau. The ridge route looked pretty difficult from the highest summit along the ridge, but we decided to give it a try. To our great delight, the route turned out to be "just right". While I took pictures from the sharp saddle, Pål Jørgen started exploring upwards and soon shouted down that the route was "open". We arrived at the summit shortly after 1215, rested and had lunch. The view all around is truly breathtaking. Naturally, we enjoyed seeing Trolla (1850m), that we climbed in September last year. We signed the summit register. The last visitor was back in August. We were number 16 and 17 to visit this fine summit in 2006. The cliffs overlooking Innerdalen are very steep and the view correspondingly impressive.
We left at 1245 and were back at the trailhead in 4 hours, at 1645.
Good luck with the weather, it rained as we left Sunndalsøra, but this stopped by the time we were at the trailhead. Then, a nine hour hike with mostly sunny weather, only a few clouds now and then. As soon as we started driving, the rain came back and lasted for several hours.
Our late fall mountaineering trip continued the next day with a successful climb of Nordre Slotthøa.

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