Location: North 62.06276, East 007.34234 (GPS on the summit)
Difficulty: YDS class 2
Climbed February 13 2016.
Information:
How to get there:
From Stryn, drive Hwy. 15 up to the highest point, where Hwy. 63 (to Geiranger)
forks left. (This road is only open in the summer.) Just after exiting the last
and longest tunnel (about 4.5 kilometer), you will find this fork with a parking
area in winter. This location is N62.01342, E007.39735, elevation about 940 meter.
In summer, one may turn left and drive to near Djupvatnet, the trip will then be a bit
shorter.
Route description:
Ski along the closed Hwy. 63. Make sure there is no avalanche
danger from above on the right. If this is the case, take a route more
in the middle of the valley (further left).
Before lake Djupvatnet, ascend right to the 1150m saddle between Stavbrekknovi and
Rundegga. From here you see the mountain directly across the lake.
Next, cross the pretty large lake, Kolbeinsvatnet, on a north-east
direction. Ascend north-east towards Storhaugen and gain the broad, somewhat broken
east ridge. Higher up, traverse left and gain more gentle terrain. Continue along
obvious and easy slpes to the summit.
Note that the cairn is located very close
to a steep face having overhanging snow cornices.
Comments:
I left Bergen in the afternoon and arrived at the trailhead around 2100.
The temperature read -16C in the evening, -17C the next morning. Aside from
the temperature being a bit on the cold side, the conditions were near perfect,
no wind and good snow. I left around 0745 and had a good ski, first along the
snow buried Hwy. 63.
Next, up easy slopes to the col at about 1150 meter before
lake Kolbeinsvatnet. This lake
is pretty large and it took some effort to
break trail in fairly deep snow across to the north-east. I decided to ski the
east side since the west side
looked slightly steeper. Skiing up to the
east ridge was again very nice. My first attempt to stay north on this ridge
was obviously not a good choice, but traversing left to complete the ascend on
the south side was easy. The last part of this ascent is again on very gentle
terrain that terminates at the cairn. I was there at 1100, a slight breeze and
temperature near -20C, made me minimize the stop. Some pictures and a GPS
reading, I left after approximately 15 minutes.
The ski back down was nice and easy, temperatures near the end felt almost
warm. However, the car showed -14C when I was back at 1300.
I next drove down to Stryn, then the narrow road to Flo, preparing for my
attempt to ski Stolhyrna on Sunday.
The view across lake Oppstrynsvatnet
was quite nice from this side of the lake.
