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Gråfjellet seen from the road(No Javascript) |
Gråfjellet is located above Lønningdal on the west side of Samnangerfjorden. The Sveningen massif forms a "horseshoe" around Øvstedalen valley. While Midtsæterfjellet is the western end of the "shoe", Gråfjellet is the eastern. With nothing between the top and the fjord, the views are excellent.
Lønningdal is also the natural trailhead for Gråfjellet, which is not visited very frequently. The guestbook in the mailbox on top shows that some do find their way up this mountain. Local people, most likely. The paths used to be well marked in the good old days, but no one seems to maintain the paths anymore. It helps to know this mountain to avoid a "bush war". Hopefully, the below route description will be helpful in case you want to visit this top. I have proposed a round trip, allowing you to get a good understanding of the mountain.
Gråfjellet (M711: 486m, Ø.K: 486,40m) has a primary factor of 203m towards the higher Sveningen (842m). The saddle is found on the ridge between the two tops, in "Baggeskardet". Ref. Økonomisk Kartverk (5m contours), you cross the 285m contours on the high route, but not 280m. The saddle height has been interpolated to 283m. (My GPS reported 488m over a 10-minute period)
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.
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Lønningdalen - Gråsida (summer/autumn)
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From the 580/E39 junction (roundabout) at Nesttun, follow E39 18,2Km southbound to Osøyro (follow signs to Eikelandsosen). Turn left in the main junction in Osøyro and follow highway RV562 11,2Km to the "Øvredal" exit. (Note that 1,3Km after Osøyro, you must turn left towards "Lønningdal"). Continue 800m on the road to Øvredal and you should see a bridge on your right- hand side. Find parking nearby.
This is the shortest route from Bergen, but it might be just as fast to drive via Trengereid.
Ascent
Follow the road across the bridge and head upwards. In the first road junction, turn right. Follow the road which turns into a forest road. Stay left in all forest road junctions. 100m after the 2nd junction (in a steeper hill), notice a cairn on the side of the road (more into the forest, actually). This is where you (hopefully) should be coming down.
The forest road is gradually turning into a tractor road and at the road end, locate a vague path that runs up Stordalen valley, on the left-hand side of the stream (Glomdalselva). After a while, the path turns from NE to N (marked by an arrow on a tree) and heads up towards the Midtfjellet - Gråfjellet pass. You need to pay attention if you want to stick with the path in this forest. As you approach the pass, you will see "T"'s painted (fading paint) in blue on the trees. Turn left in the pass and follow the ridge up the summit mailbox.
Descent
Follow the ridge SW in the direction of Lønningdalen. You'll have to bypass small cliffs along the way. At 240m-220m elevation, begin to turn SE. You're down at the meadow now, with the "Trollbergshaugen" hump at the far end of the meadow. Follow the terrain where it is open, and if you're in luck, you'll stumble onto the path that takes you down to the forest road, where you saw the cairn on your way up the mountain.
Just like last week-end, the Sunday weather didn't live up to the promises from Saturday. I was a bit tired after the long walk above Brekkedalen the day before, and since the Bergen mountains were fogged in, I decided to revisit Gråfjellet. For some reason, I never developed a web-page for this mountain. It was high time that I did. My first and only visit was back in October 1999. I did remember where I started, but remembered little or nothing from the hike itself.
A local farmer allowed me to park next to the farm, and by 13:40PM, my dachshund "Troll" and I was heading up the forest road. It didn't take long before Troll refused to walk, and I carried him throughout the hike. Not that he wouldn't be willing later on, but it was not terrain for a small dog. The local farmer had told me that there was a path at the end of the forest road. There would even be a sign.
When I passed the cairn next to the road, I assumed that this was the path he mentioned. But there was no sign, and it was not still not road end. I decided to carry on. When the forest road ended, I located a path and realised it would take me up Stordalen valley. This was also the route I hiked back in '99.
Some details from the '99 hike started to come back to me. I remembered that I had lost the path on the way upwards, but found it again during descent. I had also visited Midtfjellet, a plateau NE of Gråfjellet. This time, I had no intention of hiking back down the same route. I was able to follow the path all the way to the top, even if it was nearly invisible in parts of the forest.
We reached the top 15:00PM and were not rewarded with good views. The fog was covering all of the nearby mountains except Rødsfjellet. That would be my next trip in this area, as the Rødsfjellet's web-page needs some work. I signed the guestbook while Troll whined almost silently. He understood that he hadn't earned his lunch-box. It was easy to tell. I put him in the backpack again and headed down the SW ridge.
The plan was simple; head down the ridge, turn left down by the meadow and fight bush back to the forest road. I could have looked harded for a better route down the ridge, because it got steep in places. I also ended up in a bush fight before I even reached the meadow. The upside was that I found the path which led me back to the forest road. By 15:45PM, the hike was over. Troll's lack of excersise was compensated for later in the evening, by a hike up to Mt. Ulriken.
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Some of the thumbnails may have been cropped to fit the format.
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