Norwegian Mountains, Nordland
Dønna
Hatten & Litlhatten (and a quick trip to Sweden),
July 12 2010
To the main Hatten page
(maps, pictures, other trip reports)
On the way to Hatten
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After having escaped from bad weather in Brønnøysund - our summer base-camp - Anne and me went up north and visited Dønnmannen on Dønna island. On the way back to Brønnøysund, the weather was still not good along the coast. But as the forecast promised better weather to the east, we agreed to stop by Hattfjelldal and visit Hatten. This mountain had been on my to-do list for quite some time, and now the time had come to pay it a visit.
While driving down the E6, Anne called Hattfjelldal Hotel to make a reservation. Anne got this feeling that they didn't seem particularly interested in getting visitors, and she expressed some confusion after the call. She said that we were to call the hotel again once we got there. We thought that was a bit odd. Why not just open the door and say "hi"?
We called back when we reached Trofors, and were told to pick up the key in a box outside the hotel. Once we got there, we had to call them up again to get the key code for the box. The hotel was closed, and the key led us to the annex - an "extension" of the main hotel. More precisely - a set of barracks, normally habituated by commuters. Had we decided to spend the entire evening in this room, claustrophobia would have hit us hard. But as it was the night for the 2010 world soccer final, we prepared for a cosy evening in the TV room.
But first, we had time for a quick trip (a 35km drive - one way) to Sweden...
Going abroad
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Back at "the hotel", we discovered that the TV only fed 4 seconds worth of signals before it went into a 4-second freeze. The word aggravating nowhere near expresses my feelings there and then. It was time for plan B! We had earlier learned that the local Mix kiosk would show the game on a large screen. So off we went...
It's the first time I've been to a Mix kiosk which served dinner and beer! Most excellent! The guests fell into 3 categories; a) Anne and me, b) a dozen locals and c) an international group of white-water rafters who seemed to belong to the world elite. It was fun to watch both the game and the locals - getting fairly drunk as the game progressed.
Everyone in the room (except me) seemed to cheer for Holland. I do like the way the Dutch play, but I like the Spanish football even more. The game was tense, quite a few beers went down (I tried to blend in...) and when the final whistle blew, I jumped up and celebrated. At first, I was the only one cheering. Awkward moment! But after a little while, a local with a "Spanish heart" joined me in the celebration. It was time to call it a day. We had a mountain to hike the next morning, and we returned to the hotel. Based on its size and its (lack of) comfort, the room was heavily overprized, but on a positive note - we had the entire building to ourselves. To find peace, I decided that had to count for something...
Not exactly the Plaza...
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As we had ordered breakfast for the next morning, we were of course curious if someone would turn up. To our "surprise", there were now 3 staff members in the hotel restaurant, and breakfast got served. The breakfast matched the room standard, but all in all, we were happy about having found a place to spend the night, and getting some food before leaving for Hatten.
Anne had visited a colleague in Hattfjelldal the day before, and he told us exactly where to drive, in order to find the Hatten trailhead. By 10:13am, we were on our way up a 4WD/tractor road signposted "Hatten". The flora quickly caught our attention; there were all sorts of flowers to see, and many that I hadn't seen before. The Globe-flower (excellent name!) being one of them;
A Globe-flower
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After a while, the 4WD road ended and was preceded by a well-worn forest path. The path took us across Slettfjellet and the meadow between the Hattjørna lakes. Hatten was wrapped in fog, but it seemed that the fog was lifting. Perhaps we would get lucky and have a clear view from the top?
Fog lifting from Hatten
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The path up the mountain was initially easy to follow, but as we reached rocky ground, we lost sight of it every now and then. The terrain was quite easy, so it was just a matter of going upwards.
We reached Hatten summit - 1128 meters above sea level - 11:58am (after a 4,5km hike), and concluded that there would be no grand panoramas today. But we weren't completely fogged in either, and were satisfied with what we had. The big surprise of the day (besides getting breakfast) was the summit troll;
The Hatten troll
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Happy about having visited Hårteigen's cousin in Nordland county, we moved on. It was only natural to also visit Litlhatten (1050m) now that we were here. Litlhatten was just a 600m walk from the saddle connecting the two mountains. On the way back to the saddle, it was time to have fun with ice...
Fun with ice
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On the way down the mountain, I was quite busy looking out for more flowers that I hadn't seen before, and even if I had already seen the Forget-me-not flower, I'd never seen it quite as beautiful as up here...
Forget-me-not
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We returned to the trailhead 2:30pm - 4h:15m after leaving. It was time to return to Brønnøysund and hope for better weather. It's fun to be on the move...
On the move
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