Gilafjellet (Kruk)
- Gilafjellet (Kruk)
- 1584 m
- Primary factor 636 m
- Location: North 61:03.327, East 008:40.704 (GPS at the summit)
- Location: Valdres, Norway
- Difficulty, YDS class 2.
- Attempted February 28, 2007.
- Climbed January 30, 2010.
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Information:
How to get there:
Drive Hwy. E-16 33 kilometer up the valley from the
village of Fagernes. Just as you see the first sign saying Ryfoss, prepare for
finding the turnoff. It is well signed, the sign (pointing left) says Riste Bru and
Syndin-Strø. Measure from here.
If you arrive from the north (ie. from Bergen) along E-16, then locate the Statoil gas station
in Ryfoss (where a road goes left to Beitostølen). You can continue 1.9 kilometer further
on Hwy. E-16, in order to locate Riste Bru, or you can take the first possible right after the
Statoil gas station, cross a bridge and make a left at the T-junction. After 500 meter, make a
sharp right joining the description from Riste Bru.
From the turnoff saying Riste Bru, cross the bridge and make a right, this is about 150 meter
after leaving E-16. At kilometer 1.6, stay left (uphill), this is where the alternative road
from Ryfoss (gas station) links up with this route. At kilometer 2.4, watch out as you need to
turn left (more uphill). Continue uphill and go straight at kilometer 3.2, then stop at the
toll gate at kilometer 3.5. The toll (2010) is NOK 60, you can pay by coins at the machine
on your left.
Follow the nice road further uphill as it climbs the valley hillside and crosses the
high crest between Langefonnkampen (1076m) and Syndinfjellet (1060m).
At kilometer
10.5, you arrive at the Åstastøl, a larger building with a small store and
a cafe (may be closed). In winter, park here. In summer, you may drive further downhill to
the large lake. The winter parking has location N61:05.430, E008:44.320, elevation very close to
1000 meter.
Route description:
From the (winter) trailhead, ski down to the bridge that crosses the narrow section
connecting the North and the Middle Syndin lakes. This constitutes a loss of
about 60 meter of elevation.
From here, just head uphill avoiding
any steep section. Sking up just west of the gorge Hågensgil works well. Higher up,
close to the 1360 contour, there are some minor cliffs, but they can be easily avoided by
staying a bit further left. Soon, you will see the cairn higher up, with easy skiing to
gain it.
There is a nice cairn and a box right next to it without a summit register, but with a
local map of the area.
Comments:
First trip:
My first trip to investigate access to this peak was on February 28th. 2007. The
weather was pretty bad with snow and Heidi wanted a little shopping done if convenient.
Consequently, I started out from my mountain hut around 1000 (which was too late).
I first investigated a possible access from the north towards the big lake Helin which is
west of the mountain. However, the summer road up there seems to be closed in winter. I paid
NOK 20 in toll and drove pretty high into an area where new mountain huts were being built.
This road got me up into the vicinity of the knoll Hesthovdane. I considered skiing from here,
however, the weather was bad and my car was clearly in an area where it officially should
not be. Thus, I returned and navigated to the trailhead described above. Altogether, this
took time and I started out too late to gain the summit with the prevailing conditions. The
snow was knee deep and I had to break trail from the parking area. I skied gently down and across
the valley to the beginning uphill slope to Kruk. Satisfied that I now know how to climb this
mountain, I turned around about 3 kilometer short of the summit in order to get back
home before dark.
Second trip:
I had been 3 days at the eVITA winter school in Geilo, this is an annual meeting.
The week had started with the very sad news that my best colleague, professor Magne
Espedal, had died while on travel to Stuttgart. He was only 67 years old.
After the meeting, early afternoon on Friday, I drove across Golsfjellet and decided
to stay overnight at the nice guesthouse, Furulund, in the small village of Røn.
Røn is located about 14 kilometer north from Fagernes along Hwy. E-16.
I was served a very nice breakfast at 0800 and left shortly thereafter. Despite my earlier
visit, including a description of how to drive, I did not immediately find the road. I resolved
to rewrite the description and it should now be very accurate.
I left the car shortly before 1000. The temperature read -15 Celcius, but it did not feel
very bad. I followed a groomed track down to the bridge, then broke trail up on the opposite
side. The snow was not too bad, and I advanced fairly quickly. After an initial climbing traverse
going left, I hit a pretty distinct river gorge and decided to head uphill on its right side.
Higher up, there were some visible cliffs, but what looked like a nice route continued uphill
on the left side. This plan worked just fine and pretty soon I could see the summit cairn.
I arrived at the top at 1150, the visibility was ok, but not really good. After about 10 minutes
I headed back down, arriving back at the car by 1300.
Resources:
- Images
- Snowplows, I had escort across from Bergen.
- Gilafjellet, the summit cairn can be seen.
- The upper part. I skied up a very convenient route just left of the visible rock, then more left after reaching a small, local saddle.
- The summit cairn.
- Gilafjellet, as seen from the trailhead. The highest point is towards the right end of the (high) summit ridge.