Vargebreen

  • Vargebreen
  • 1766 m
  • Primary factor 336 m
  • North of Finse, Norway
  • Location: North 60.67577, East 007.47029 (GPS at the summit)
  • Difficulty: YDS class 2
  • Climbed February 16. 2014.

Information:

How to get there:
A good starting point is the railroad station Finse, the highest point on the railroad connecting Oslo and Bergen.
Route description: From the railroad platform at Finse, ski a short distance west (left when facing the railroad), then cross the tracks and begin to follow the route towards Sankt Pål (to Geiteryggen). From around 1400 meter, leave the (marked) route and continue up the broad valley going north. There are two alternatives, one may follow the valley north to Såtedalen, then turn left and ski towards the (1420-1440) saddle, just east of lake 1410. Alternatively, ski a bit more west and climb gently the north part of Omnsbreen and cross the small plateau, in order to descend along a gentle slope back down to the east end of lake 1410.
From here, ascend the nice and broad slope going north until reaching tha 1700 meter level, then continue directly to the two summits that are both marked with an elevation of 1766 meter.
Comments:
This was a trip I organized for the local mountaineering group in Bergen. Thus, we were a group of 6 travelling by train from Bergen to Finse. The train departed late and I realized that we most likely would not make the 1630 return, but rather the 1830 train. We started skiing at 1115 and kept a reasonable pace arriving in Såtedalen after 2 hours of skiing. We had wind at about 10 m/s, some fog above 1500 meter, but otherwise quite ok - this is pretty typical weather in the mountains in February. We visited the first summit around 1425 and summit number two at 1440. The weather was quite hostile up here and we returned to lower elevations as quickly as possible. Skiing back was easy and we were back at the Finse station shortly after 1700. To our surprise, the 1630 train arrived almost instantly, running about 40 minutes late. Pretty optimal for us, we had a smooth trip back to Bergen and a nice Sunday evening dinner.

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