Location: North 68:55.298, East 016:27.037 (GPS at the summit)
Difficulty: YDS class 1
Climbed November 19, 2011
Information:
How to get there:
This mountain is close to the city of Harstad. Drive 2.2 kilometer from
the buss station (in the middle of town), following Hwy. 83 north then west, to a traffic circle.
Stay on Hwy. 83 as you make a left in this traffic circle and continue another 7.2 kilometer to
location N68:47.044 E016:21.484. A small dirt road forks right at this point. If you cross the
border (leaving Harstad) to the municipality of Kvæfjord, you have driven too far.
Turn right and continue to the first (red) building on your left side. Find parking here without
blocking any access. This is the trailhead, location N68:47.060 E016:21.172, elevation about
200 meter. A rough road continues, however it is not suitable for ordinary cars.
Route description:
Follow the farm road as it gently crosses the fields while heading uphill. Cross a short section of
forest and note the wooden gate just before the tractor track enters a new farmers field. This is location
N68:47.271 E016:20.580, elevation about 265 meter. Turn right here and follow a trail directly uphill
along the right side of a fence. Continue across a more level area, then continue uphill along the trail.
There may be some trails running horizontally in this area. Ignore this and find a trail that runs uphill,
crossing through the last section of trees. You emerge into more open land higher up. Follow a trail or just
head uphill across easy terrain. The shortest path will climb while traversing slightly left across the slopes.
The summit is located on a pretty wide, but still distinct ridge. The north-west (opposite side) of the ridge
is considerably steeper. The highest point is marked by a rather small pile of rocks. There are more
significant cairns further west along the ridge, but they are not near the summit area.
Comments:
I had arrived from Bergen with some hope of going to the island of Grytøya, however the next ferry
would not run until it got almost dark. I decided that my best plan would be to do a local hike, sleep in
Harstad and then go to Grytøya (in order to climb Nona, 1012 m)
the next morning. Storlitinden looked like a good, nearby target. I was also convinced that it had prominence
exceeding 100 meter.
The hike was straightforward, I left the car at 1245, made the summit at 1340. I did explore the ridge before
returning down at 1355, arriving at the car by 1425. I made several useful observations; even at 600 meter the snow
cover was only a couple of centimeter, easy to walk. When I returned, it was still enough daylight to easily
walk without any head lamp, but it did get dark quickly thereafter. The weather was dominated by thick fog, thus
I did not really see anything and unfortunately, there are no pictures to illustrate this trip.
Upon retuning to my hotel, a closer look at the map revealed that Høgfjellet to the north of Storlitinden
was 615 meter, one meter higher than this peak! Consequently, the prominence of Storlitinden ends up with
a prominence of only 81 meter. Despite this, the hike is nice and with more time one could traverse north
and include Høgfjellet in a nice day hike.