Location: South 41.87070, East 146.03293 (GPS at the summit)
Difficulty: YDS class 2
Climbed March 14. 2015.
Information:
How to get there:
Locate Hwy. 15, connecting Otta and Lom with Stryn. Near the highest point
on this mountain crossing, the old road (only open in Summer) forks off
at a small place (basically a hotel) called Grotli. Continue 4 kilometer
from Grotli direction Stryn, along the new road, then locate a small
parking area on your right (if coming from Grotli) at location N62.02999, E007.56051,
elevation about 905 meter. Park here. If coming from Stryn, this is left
immediately after the road makes a right curve, crossing a small part of
the lake.
Route description:
From the trailhead, follow the old road (buried) as it curves left below
steeper terrain. As soon as you can follow the main vally uphill, do this
staying on the right side of the creek. Note that the creek forks, continue
uphill staying well right of the right fork called Skomakerelvi. Continue
uphill, direction NE towards the small lake 1143. Turn more left here and continue
a bit west of north up a very smooth and gentle uphill in order to reach the
south end of Fremste Vikvatnet. Turn north-east and ski to Skrådalsvatnet, 1320m.
Continue through Skrådalen, then descend to the upper part of
Vuludalen. You loose about 140 meter of elevation here, but any attempt
to contour left gets you into avalanche terrain.
Ski up the last part of this valley to Grønvatnet.
Finally, you now see the summit up front (to the right).
From here, the summer
trail climbs right, it is better to ski a bit north on the lake, then climb slightly
right, following a very natural ramp with an easy slope, that will connect to the
very upper part of the creek that
drains lake Simlevatnet, 1418m. Cross the south end of
this lake and ski up the slope that runs north from the west end of
lake Styggedalsvatnet. Contine uphill, staying left (west) of the highest terrain.
You will find easy, gentle slopes here as you get higher. Continue below more rocky
terrain and ski close to the west side of the small summit that sits on the ridge
before Tordsnose. You can traverse just below it and access a nice passage that turns right
and gets you to the col south of Tordsnose. Ski along the ridge, beware of some
cornices that face east. The last 150 meter vertical is not as steep as it appears.
If the snow is good, then just zig-zag up to the summit. If the slope is icy,
leave your skis and proceed on foot. It may be smart to carry crampons and
an ice-axe, just in case the conditions are very icy. I guess this is rather
unlikely, but just in case..
Comments:
The weather forecast was just super for this weekend. I therefore decided
to drive all the way to Grotli and attempt two of the really high major summits
that may be climbed on skis. I left Bergen at 1530, got stuck in a Friday afternoon
traffic-jam, but still made good time, arriving at the trailhead before 2200.
Saturday morning, the temperature read -18.5 C, good to have a proper sleeping-bag!
I started skiing at 0700. Not a single track, but a
beautiful morning.
The sun was already painting pink colors on the peaks.
I made good
progress and got into some headwind at Skråvatnet. I tried to countour left
to avoid some of the descent, however, this got me into steepish terrain with
bad (avalanche) snow. I quickly descended along a pretty safe route to the valley floor.
The route up to Grønvatnet was easy, there is a small hut on
the right hand side
here. The natural slope up ahead provided
a very nice route to the higher lake
Simlevatnet. Skiing continued to be good
and I was soon at the final ridge leading
to the summit. The snow here was surprisingly icy in patches and skiing was not
easy any longer. I left my skis around elevation 1810. I was not very happy about
having left my ice axe and crampons back home. With it, one could walk directly
to the summit. As things were, I needed to find good snow for my boots, thus a slightly
convoluted path, but I got up without any trouble.
Arriving at 1210, the climb
had taken 5:10.
Very nice view all
around and almost no wind. I took a full
panorama set of photos, the a piece of Kvikk lunch (Norwegian chocolate). Leaving
at 1230, I started my return in this extremely nice weather. The return
ski was uneventful as I returned to the car at 1540.