Norwegian Mountains - Trip reports - Bjørnabreen, Keipen, Esebotn, Esefjorden, Balestrand

Norwegian Mountains, Sogn og Fjordane

Bjornabreen (1464m), Keipen (1417m), July 27 2014

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Bjørnabreen
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On this beautiful day late in July 2014, it was time to visit the highest mountain in the mountain region between Gaularfjellet and Sognefjorden - Bjørnabreen. Anne and me drove from Sogndal and took the Hella - Dragsvik ferry on which we enjoyed the fantastic Balestrand mountain panorama.

Balestrand mountains
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We drove to Esebotn and located the trailhead. We had a long hike ahead of us but were already contemplating the idea about a round trip with descent into Dalsdalen. Balestrand taxi might just get a phone call later on...

The time was 9:55am when we headed out. It was a super hot and beautiful day. The path was easy to follow and after half an hour we arrived at Dalen. What a gorgeous place! And the creek was just too tempting to pass...

Enjoying Dalen services
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The next leg was the switchbacks up through the forest. We met two guys on their way down. One of them had stomach ache and his friend had decided to follow him down. Eventually we rose above the forest and got the surrounding mountains in view, as well as Esefjorden.

Esefjorden view
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Rising above the forest was very nice. We had Vindreken on our left hand side, Keipen to the right and Bjørnabreen straight ahead. We stopped and enjoyed the views from a viewpoint which above "Gulleplet" - which I think was an old mountain cabin somewhere nearby. The name was perhaps "Gulleplestølen" - a name that was painted on a rock down in the forest. On the pictures, I might have associated this viewpoint with "Gulleplet", which is probably incorrect. From this viewpoint, we followed a ridge up to a small plateau where Karma decided it was time to cool off again...

Karma - cooling down
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We continued up the ridge and had a steeper section ahead of us. A diagonal "ramp" provided easy access up to the Bjørnabreen summit area. As we now had decided to descend via Dalsdalen, it was natural to visit Keipen first. As we passed Bjørnabreen, we saw two deer crossing the glacier. A rare sight at this elevation, but it was most likely the heat that inspired them to find cooler ground...

Deer on Bjørnabreen
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We now sat a direct course towards Keipen and arrived there at 1:30pm. This was a spectacular viewpoint with steep cliffs all around and a might rugged ridge stretching towards the fjord. It would have been fun to scramble/climb this ridge, but not today. Not without gear and certainly not with a dog...

On Keipen
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Once Keipen was "in the bag", we continued up to the Bjørnabreen high point and celebrated the highest peak in a large mountain region. We only stayed for a few pictures and then began our descent down the north side of the glacier. It felt more like walking on a snow field, but sometimes there's only a fine line between a snow field and a melting glacier...

Descending Bjørnabreen
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Our task was now to find a good route down to lake 1062, which marked the "border" between the upper mountain and the real descent into Dalsdalen. We passed point 1293 on the right hand side and lake 1225 to the left. We also passed point 1125 on the right hand side before we sat course for the outlet of the lake. For the second time on this trip, a cold bath was just too tempting...

A cold bath in lake 1062
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The area around lake 1062 was truly beautiful and 130m to the north, we found a mountain cabin. We took a quick look inside and continued on our journey. After a few minutes, we realized that we were on the wrong path. We were now heading north up another mountain and had to turn around. We found the path into Dalsdalen close to the mountain cabin.

Lake 1062
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Descending into Dalsdalen didn't give us any navigational challenges. The route was well marked with T's painted in red. After rain, the slabs can be slippery so caution is required. We kept a southeast course along Remelvi down to 620m where the path turned north/northeast to the Påfunn cabin at at 570m. The name is quite strange for a shepherd's mountain cabin, and I'm not even sure how to translate it. "Caprice", perhaps...

At Påfunn
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Dalsdalen was blueberry heaven. Even Karma had her fair share of the goodies, but only when we told her to eat. Even with the berries one inch away from her face, she had no idea that this blue stuff was edible. We continued down the forest and eventually reached the valley floor where we found a huge rock and a ladder on the side. The ladder didn't feel too secure and I must admit I bailed on my first attempt. Anne, on the other hand, climbed straight up and then I couldn't do worse, of course...

Air guitar...
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Eventually, we reached the mountain road and called Balestrand taxi. They didn't seem too keen on driving up the mountain road so we agreed that we would be waiting down by the main road. We reached RV13 at 5:20pm - close to 7,5 hours after heading out from Esebotn. It was a very memorable hike indeed, and I recommend it strongly to anyone who think they can endure a 20km hike and 1600 vertical meters.