Location: North 60.72691, East 005.73312 (GPS at the summit)
Climbed June 5, 2016.
Difficulty: YDS class 2
Information:
How to get there:
This mountain is south of Mo in Modalen, the best approach is from
the east side. From Bergen, one may drive E39 north to Romarheim, then turn right
to Modalen. In Modalen, continue through the big tunnel that makes it possible
to drive to Dale. After the tunnel, continue south almost to Eide (just before Eidfjorden).
Park on the right hand side of the road just opposite of a small road that forks directly
left in order to serve a house out on a flat field.
This location is N60.73962, W005.79867, elevation about 50 meter.
Alternatively, drive E16 via Vaksdal and Dale, then turn left towards Romarheim
and Modalen. After you leave the innermost part of Eidsfjorden, continue past a few houses on
your left and find parking on the left hand side of the road just opposite where a small
road forks right in order to serve a house out on a flat field.
This route is about 20 kilometer shorter, but the road from Dale is
somewhat more narrow.
Route:
From the parking, walk towards the Eidsfjorden area, making a gentle left turn. After the turn
and approximately 100 meter from the parking), locate a small trail the heads uphill
from the main highway. There is an old stone wall going up on the left.
This is the trailhead, start uphill among big trees.
Soon, there will be a sign saying Eidsstølen.
The trail is definitely hard to follow, it climbs uphill.
The trail is marked pretty well, the main issue is that the trail itself has vanished in
many places, more in the uphill section than later on. Keep looking for the red plastic
markers attached on trees and also some red paint on rocks.
Next,
it is easy to get lost as an old trail forks left, ie. more horisontally. Keep going
uphill, the route must gain the plateau with small ponds at about 460 meter, in order to
connect nicely with Eidsstølen.
The trail stays pretty much right as you ascend, higher up, pretty close to the steeper
terrain that you have on your right hand side.
That is, the route passes north of point 471 marked
on the map. Continue across easy terrain, descending to Eidsstølen.
From Eidsstølen, cross the meadow and ascend along easy slopes towards Nordrenakken,
696 meter. Cross on its east side and follow the main crest to the summit. There are 3
summit points, the north-east being
marked with a bolt, is likely slightly higher,
A small, nice pond is located
at the summit plateau between these points.
Comments:
The weather was very nice and Pål and I decided to go for a hike. Salsfjellet
seemed like a good target, clearly free of snow by now.
We drove via Dale, planning to return via Modalen and E-39 after the hike.
The trailhead was not easy to find, we drove past it, realized that we had gone too far
and subsequently found it.
Starting at 1140, we quickly realized that this trail was hard to follow. Higher up,
we lost it completely. Our mistake being that we contoured around the first hill
too low.
This got us into somewhat complex terrain before we finally crossed the main
creek about one kilometer downstream from Eidsstølen. A small bonus, we got
a shorter and quite nice route uphill. We followed a small stream that originates
near the summit, then flows down largely across nice (slick) rock. Good dry, smooth rock
with friction and the right amount of uphill made our summit hike very enjoyable.
We arrived at 1415 and spent almost half an hour exploring the 3 small summit points as
well as the nice view. A bit of
haze south towards Osterøy, otherwise snowy
mountains both northeast
and northwest.
We next hiked across the north summit, a bit short of 700 meter,
then descended to
Eidsstølen. We believed we could pick
up the proper trail there for a somewhat
easier return hike.
Eidsstølen seems to be in little use, consequently, the
trail is also about to disappear. However, the route was initially well marked with small
red markers, this was promising. We already understood where to go, across the 460 meter
plateau. The markers did not last long and we continued off-trail until hitting the
blue rope way down in the final hill extending down to the trailhead.
We were back at the car by 1645, drove via Modalen to E-39. There, we got
stuck for almost one hour due to a traffic accident south of Romarheim. When it
finally cleared, we continued home for a well deserved dinner.
Resources:
Images
Salsfjellet, from the ridge extending south from Eidsnova.
