Location: North 60:18.978 East 005:32.772 (GPS on the summit)
Difficulty: YDS class 1
Climbed February 26, 2012.
Information:
How to get there:
Drive south from Bergen on E-39, towards Os.
Just after lake Kalandsvatnet and a short stretch of the road with
speed limit 80 km/h, look for a road going left with the sign
"Hausdal 10". Take this road. Drive slightly beyond the small place
named Fjelltveit. I drove slightly further than the trailhead in order to
find parking. There is parking off the road on the left hand side for about 2 cars.
Park here, location N60:18.629 E005:30.253, elevation about 67 meter.
Route description:
From the parking described above, walk back on the main road about 200 meter.
Your trailhead is the first small road that goes left (when walking south).
Cross the first small hump and follow the farm road as it descends to the south
end of lake Samdalsvatnet. Cross three different creeks, then ascend gently along the road
to lake Ulvvatnet. Here, the trail forks, take the left fork that runs on the north side
of Ulvvatnet. Continue a bit east, the trail then turns more north. With snow on the ground
one may loose the trail in this area. Make sure that your path runs by location
N60:18.207 E005:30.921, elevation about 115 meter. Head more right and get all the way
across to the creek that is coming out from a small gorge ahead and on your right.
Ascend the ridge that rises just left of the creek. There is a small, but quite visible
trail heading uphill. This trail stays on the ridge and provides a nice route up to
Søtefjellet.
Higher up, you will see a reflector that
serves the local mobile phones in Hausdalen. The trail
continues along the highest crest and climbs more steeply a short stretch, before the terrain levels out.
There are several fairly large cairns along the way.
Continue to follow the ridge uphill until
you arrive at the summit named Søtefjellet, about 760 meter, and
marked by two small cairns.
However, the highest summit is across a small col further east. This summit is
marked by a pole with a mail box. Unfortunately, the lid is missing and the summit register is
completely soaked and frozen.
Comments:
I tried to ski this summit a week ago via Sveningen, but the wind was just too strong. Since then, we have
had mild weather and rain. Thus, skiing was out of the question and I decided to hike this mountain along
its south ridge.
I parked along the main road and started hiking at 1055. The route was nice and I quickly gained elevation.
I took a short break by the reflector, then continued uphill. I finally ran into snow, but the recent mild weather followed
by the cold temperature this morning had created an icy, solid surface. I put on my crampons and continued to
the summit. I quickly realized that the nearby summit across to my right (east) was most likely the highest point and
headed across to it, arriving approximately at 1315.
The nice morning weather was about to end. I took a few pictures before heading down.
The hike down was pretty straightforward, I was back at the car around 1455, altogether a nice 4 hour hike.