Norwegian Mountains

Gullfjellstoppen, Jan 11 2004

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Trip report, Jan 11 2004

The weather was far from perfect this Sunday morning. The wind was shaking the house, and I felt far from going hiking today. The weather forecast was strong wind and rain. But by 11:00AM, my soul was restless and I had to think of something. I decided to do a quick hike to Gullfjellstoppen, leaving Troll home alone.

I left the Osavatnet trailhead 11:50AM. The weather was OK. I could see the summit and it hadn't begun raining yet. The trail all the way into Kinndalen was quite icy. I had brough trekking poles along, and these came in very handy for keeping up the speed. I could easily jump across the slippery spots.

I decided to take my usual shortcut straight to Kinndalsnipa, instead of hiking the normal route all the way into Kinndalen. This hillside was very ice, and one point was quite spooky. I decided not to return this way. On top of Kinndalsnipa, it began to snow and the winds were quite strong. I took a direct route up to Gullfjellhalsen. This is a steep hillside, but the soft snow didn't offer any problems than snow up to my hips.

On top of Gullfjellhalsen I took the direct route to the summit (I didn't go to the lake). This is a very steep route that requires soft snow unless you have crampons. I reached the summit 13:40PM. The goal was 13:20PM, but under these conditions I didn't feel too bad. It was snowing horizontal on the summit and the winds were stronger. I witnessed the collapsed summit cairn. Apparently, lightning had struck the cairn in 2003.

Instead of returning down Kinndalsnipa, I took the ususal route around and hiked down to Kinndalen. The top of this route was extremely icy, but a few detours on snowfields made the descent quite safe. It was now raining heavily in Kinndalen. Soaking wet, I arrived the Osavatnet trailhead 15:10PM.

Pictures from the Jan 11 2003 hike:

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Pictures are presented in the order they were taken.

1. View from lake Osavatnet (131KB) 2. View from lake Svartavatnet (225KB) 3. The summit is within reach (423KB) 4. The collapsed summit cairn (212KB) 5. View down to Kinndalsnipa (325KB) 6. Descending Gullfjellhalsen (229KB) 7. The Ronamanen couloirs (445KB) 8. My route up and down Gullfjellhalsen (336KB) 9. View down to Kinndalen (453kb) 10. From Kinndalen, looking up (387KB) 11. Kinndalsnipa seen from Kinndalen (282KB)

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