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Glitregga seen from the north |
Glitregga dominates the area north of Nordfjorden/Innvikfjorden and south of Hornindalsvatnet - Europe's deepest freshwater lake (514m deep). The mountain is non-technical, and can be accessed from many sides. Together with Glitregga, the neighbours Blåegga (1064m) and Bergsetnakken (1133m) form a horseshoe, facing south-west. In a region where mountains rise sharp 1000-1600m from the fjords, this horseshoe offers a bit more gentle terrain, and is excellent for skiing or hiking.
The border between Stryn and Eid kommuner runs through the summit. Glitregga is also the highest mountain in Eid kommune.
Primary Factor
Source: Petter Bjørstad.
The saddle is found east to Faleidet in Nordfjord. Highest point is near Langeset, marked on the M711 map. More precisely, go a bit south from here (cross the road) to the farm Kårstadbakken, then further south across a flat (wet) meadow. At the end of this meadow is the saddle where two 245 meter contours are close, but do not touch. The lowest point is explicitly given as 244.5 meter on the 5 meter contour map.
My comment: My practice is to round up, not down. But with interpolation, we would have set the saddle to 243m, and we don't know for sure that 244.5 is the true low point. Thus the saddle height of 244m.
Note: Class ratings are in reference to YDS (Yosemite Decimal System).
The below route runs from Randabygda to Glitregga & back. The entire route is class 1.
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Randabygda - Glitregga (winter)
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Access
From Stryn, drive westbound (Nordfjordeid/Stranda) approx. 8Km and exit left towards Hopland. Follow this road along the Nordfjord for approx. 22Km. At Randabygda, exit right towards Åland. In summer, the first road on your right will take you to the forest road you eventually will join. In winter, continue all the way to "Idrettsplass" and park there.
The route
From "Idrettsplass", you see two forest trails. Take the rightmost trail. Once this trail curves right and descends, leave the trail and cross a meadow in eastern direction. Soon, you will join the forest trail from Randabygda to Randastøylen.
Above Randastøylen, maintain a NE direction towards Holmøyskaret between Glitregga and Blåegga. Go up the first valley on your left, from the pass. On the top of the valley, you will join a cairn trail that you might have seen, up on your left, while coming up the mountain.
Seek north until you get on Glitregga's SE ridge, that will take you to the summit. Descend your ascent route.
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In order to get a early start this Saturday, we drove from Bergen the night before. Inspite the general hotel renovation that takes place in early January, we managed to find accomodation in Stryn. Next morning, we found the road to Hopland without any problems, and at Randabygda, we drove as high as the road would take us. We ended up at the ski trail above Åland, 400m above sea level. The time was now 09:00AM. The weather was far from what we had hoped for, but still much better than real bad. The light was however very flat. As we started, I found the conditions optimal. A high start, and a prepared ski trail to cruise in. The optimal conditions didn't last long, as we had to leave the ski trail and make our way over a meadow, hoping we would come across the forest road leading to Randastøylen. We did, and had a easy section up to the cabins. After some bush navigation above Randastøylen, we kept a steady pace up Fagredalen valley. We noticed the mountains started to disappear in fog. It also started snowing, but still the weather was sort of OK. In Holmøyskaret, we began the final climb towards the summit. I had big problems with the views, and had problems separating the ground from the air. But going uphill, it's not a very big problem. And we could just follow our tracks downhill. I did not anticipate any problems. At 1000m, winds set in. Not very strong, but quite nasty for unprotected parts of the face. Our tracks vanished behind us. As Glitregga is a very uncomplicated mountain, we found the summit right away. The weather conditions did not invite for a longer summit stay, and I didn't even bother looking for a trail register. We arrived the summit 12:40PM, 3,5 hours after leaving the trailhead. The highest mountain in Eid Kommune was now "conquered". And I had never been higher in the month of January before. Good start of a new year. Going down was no fun. I had no views whatsoever, and we took it real slow. Still, it didn't take long before Petter suddenly disappeared right in front of me. It wasn't a long fall, but it was a reminder that high speed down the mountain would probably be bravehearted and dumb. It was clear that we had deviated from our ascent route, even if we were on the right way down. And soon, Petter disappeared again. This time, he fell approx. 5m, stretched a muscle a little, but was quite OK. He suggested that I should find another route around the "obstacle". I agreed, but couldn't see anything. The route deviaton continued, and just above Holmøyskaret pass, we were unable to bypass some cliffs. We backtracked up the mountain, this time towards our original route. Back in Holmøyskaret pass, the views were reasonable, and Petter wondered if I wanted to climb Blåegga, lying right there above us on the other side. In retrospect, it is quite unbelievable that I turned down a peak, lying there just 30-45 minutes away. But I guess I had my share of white-out, whipping wind and snowfall for one day. We reached the trailhead 15:00PM. Next stop was Trollvasstinden.
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Some of the thumbnails may have been cropped to fit the format.
Pictures are presented in the order they were taken.
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