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Matrenipa (right) seen from Nonklettfjellet(No Javascript) |
Nipa/Matrenipa is located just above the village Matre by Matresfjorden - a side arm of Masfjorden. The naval research institute Havforskningsinstituttet is a prominent industry in this village. The Bjørn West (World War II resistance movement) museum is a tourist attraction that tell impressive tales from the Wecond World war. The local sporting association Bjørn West I.L arranges "Fjelltrimmen" - a list of mountains that people visit during a season. The paths up to these mountains are marked for this purpose. Matrenipa is on the 2005 list of mountains.
The route description below describes a different ascent route, with descent along the route recommended by "Fjelltrimmen". There is no trail or path that will guide you all the way up and down, but finding your way up and down this mountain is fairly trivial if you have at least some hiking experience. The views are good, but as for the majority of mountains in this region - something higher will block some of the views. In the case of Matrenipa, the Rustefjellet and Glennefjellet plateaus steal the northern and southern views. The view down towards Matre and the fjord is however worth the trip alone.
(Matre)Nipa (M711: 587m, Ø.K: 587,38m) has a primary factor of 184m towards the higher Rustefjellet. The saddle is found in Kvitskardet. Ref. Økonomisk Kartverk (5m contours), you cross the 405m contours on the high route, but not 400m. The saddle height has been interpolated to 403m.
Notes: Class ratings are in reference to YDS. Click here for more information.
The trails described below are not necessarily the *easiest* trails to this mountain.
Highway E39 - Matrenipa round trip (summer/autumn)
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From Bergen, follow highway E39 northbound. After the Nordhordlandsbrua bridge, pay (NOK 45,- for passenger cars per May 2005) at the Toll station. Continue approx. 56,7Km. You have now just passed Matre and have the "Stordal" exit on your right-hand side. Continue through two tunnels and turn right onto a parking area just after the second tunnel, approx. 2,8Km from the "Stordal" exit. Park here.
To Matrenipa
The beginning of the path is hard to spot. Standing in the centre of the parking area, move towards the tunnel while you look for a vague path up the forest. You should be able to spot an orange ribbon in a tree inside the forest. The path runs approx. 50-60m W of a stream (might be dry) and continues northbound approx. 200m before it turns east into the main valley you will be following upwards. The initial section from the trailhead looks more like a dry creek than a path. Furthermore, the path is boggy in places. Once past the initial section, the path is better, although vague and narrow. Look for the orange ribbons to confirm that you are on the right track.
After you have crossed the creek and entered the main valley, follow it upwards in the northeast direction. When you get Matrenipa in clear view, you might see that the path splits in two. Go left and continue up the main valley with Matrenipa up to your right.
On top of the valley, you see a distinct ridge up to your left. Follow this ridge up to a small meadow where you might see the orange ribbon for the last time. Start ascending the final hill by keeping a south-to-southwest direction. You will probably enter the summit ridge at approx. 500-520m elevation. You will see a viewpoint cairn at 520m. Proceed up the main ridge and pass the main cairn at approx. 550m. Proceed 300m to the summit, which is marked by a small marker on the ground. You might see the rest of an old trig. point that used to be here. Proceed eastbound on the ridge for better views down to Matre.
Descent
Descend your ascent route down to 440m elevation. Leave the ribbon path and move over to a small, adjacent "canyon". Follow this canyon until you can descend into a larger valley down to your right. You will see the powerlines go through this valley. Down in the valley, proceed westbound to Lake Botnetjørni. Pass the lake on the south side and head towards the drain of this lake.
If I were to follow this route again, I would have attempted a direct route from where I left the ascent route, towards the drain of the lake. The valley floor is boggy and you have to ascend a bit above the lake anyway.
At the drain of the lake, you will soon run into a vague path. Cross the drain shortly after and follow a more visible path on the other side. Follow this path until you join the path from Trodalssætri (coming down a valley up to your right). From here on, the trail gets wider and better towards the trailhead down by highway E39. Follow the highway the remaining 500m back to your car.
Another good evening that offered the opportunity to visit a mountain. As I was now "operating" in the Masfjorden district, I chose Matrenipa for a very specific reason; walking was extremely painful.
Two days earlier I had participated in a game of soccer. It had been 12 years since I played my last soccer game. I dreaded the outcome, but figured it would be fun to play ball again. The combination of pulling a few muscles during the game, giving the rest of the muscles a hard time and a few good punches from members of the other team, did my body no good. I felt bad the day after, and equally bad when I decided to "walk this thing off" and headed towards Matre.
I wasn't quite sure how to approach the mountain, so I stopped in Matre and talked to the brother of a friend of mine. He knew the route well and gave me good information. I drove up to the trailhead and was good to go by 18:00PM. Troll, my little dachshund, refused to move already at the trailhead. He was sent to the backpack, adding more weight to sensitive muscles.
I had no problems following the vague track, but moved slowly up the forest. I lost sight of the ribbons and the path 150m below the summit and took a direct route towards the summit ridge. This involved some light scrambling and I concluded that this was probably not the route that most people followed. I arrived the main summit 18:55PM. The ridge walk had been fun. Narrow, but not airy. I had let Troll out of the backpack as soon as we hit the ridge, and he had walked the 500m up to the summit. For him, the entire route must have seemed like scrambling.
When we reached the top, he jumped in front of me with the "You better hand over the lunch box NOW" look. I let him have his (not fully earned) lunch while I took a round of pictures. All the mountains were now quite familiar, even if I hadn't been to all of them. From what I could see, only Klavefjellet and Brysdalsfjellet had not yet been visited.
Troll had to enter the backpack once we left the ridge. I headed into the valley where the powerlines went, and followed this valley (passing a lake) until I found a path that could be followed all the way down to the highway. As I was to take picture of a bridge that took us across the river from Lake Botnetjørni, the camera fell to the ground. It was broken and I said goodbye to a good companion that have taken thousands of pictures since I first used it on a hike to Bear Peak in Colorado, back in August 2002.
We were back at the car 20:15PM. The body was in a terrible state. The first cramp came when I started up the car. Obviously, there would be no more hiking the upcoming days. Nevertheless, Matrenipa was a pleasant encounter which I recommend to everyone.
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Some of the thumbnails may have been cropped to fit the format.
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The last picture marks the end of the Nikon 4500 period from Aug 2002 to June 2005. Pictures from now on will be taken by a Canon EOS 300D digital camera.
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