Norwegian Mountains

Heidalsmuen traverse, Aug 19 2006

For Information, maps, trailhead and route descriptions, click HERE.

Trip report, Aug 18-19 2006

Buddy Arne Narud and I hadn't been hiking together since Vassdalseggi in Rogaland, back in Sep. 2002. It was high time that we got together in the mountains again, and since Arne lives in the Frederikstad region, and I live in Ålesund, Otta seemed to be a good place to meet. We had several options. August was the busy season in Rondane, and people were running around with guns on Dovrefjell. Reindeer hunters, not soldiers. It's a tragedy that I foremost associate Dovrefjell - the "heart and soul" of Norway, with weapons. Snøhetta, a wonderful landscape and bison comes second. I looked at the map and discovered Heidalsmuen. I had a feeling that this would be a quiet area, and that Heidalsmuen would offer GREAT views, providing the weather would be OK.

Camp

Friday afternoon (Aug 18), I picked up Arne at the Otta Skysstasjon (the train station) and we drove up Muradalen. As I had absolutely no knowledge about this area, I looked it up on the internet. I found the name of a person who (at least) had guided children up to Heidalsmuen. I gave her a call the night before. "Hello, this is Vigdis", I heard on the other end. I paused a few seconds, making sure I wasn't talking to an answering a machine. After a couple of seconds, I said "Hello, this is Arnt ..."

"Ha ha ha ha, you've been fooled. This is Vigdis' answering machine". That put me off balance and I pushed the red button. But Vigids phoned me back a few hours later, and told me everything I needed to know about Muradalen. And now we were here. After paying toll, we followed the gravel road all the way to the base of Heidalsmuen and raised camp near the Bilbensætrin cabins. It was a gorgeous afternoon. Over a beer, Arne and I catched up about recent events, while my dog "Troll" were busy marking the territory around the camp. Not a living person to be seen. No traffic. Just silence and a beautiful sunset. This is quality time. No interruptions. Just friends, one to one.

Heidalsmuen, Aug 19

I woke up around 05:00AM, and could not sleep. Whether is was sleeping downhill or the fresh mountain air, I don't know, but it was impossible to sleep. I got up around 05:30AM. Arne must have thought I was just conducting "morning business" and must have been VERY DISAPPOINTED when he realised that I was up to stay. I didn't rush anything, and enjoyed the day transforming from a dark starry sky into sunset on the Heidalsmuen south ridge. We made breakfast and got eventually ready to hike.

We left the campsite 07:22AM, and took a somewhat steep shortcut up to the south ridge. Arne, with little (none, actually) hiking activity the recent years, followed my instructions about taking it SLOW. I didn't want him to run out of steam, once on top. Step by step, we gained the ridge and enjoyed the morning. Troll was walking wherever the terrain would let him, and once we passed 1660m, Troll walked all the way to the top, sticking as close to Arne as humanly, eh.. animally possible. Troll never left Arne's side on the Vassdalseggi trip, and he wouldn't do so, today either.

We arrived Heidalsmuen summit 09:43AM. Morning fog had now obscured most of views from the top, but that was OK. Rondane and Jotunheimen were fogged in, anway. We had lunch and enjoyed the day for a while. We decided to traverse the mountain and continued down the north ridge 10:10AM. Arne didn't want a steep descent, and we descended on gentle terrain down to 1660m before I set the course westbound. Arne, not currently at his PEAK of his mountaineering career, had to take it easy down the mountain. Boulder can be very awkward unless you visit it frequently. He was unfortunate and twisted his ancle, but was still moving on. No worries. Just take time, and we had all the time in the world.

At 1270m, we stumbled upon a path that made walking easier. We passed a group on the way to Heidalsmuen, and followed this path until we could see our tent. The rest of the route seemed somewhat unclear, as the terrain got significantly more awkward. I decided to leave the path and follow a route that guaranteed would take us back to the road, without touching steep terrain. Unfortunately, the terrain was quite cumbersome - high bush terrain - but eventually we arrived the campsite, 13:45PM.

After lunch, we agreed that it would be quite boring to hang around until nightfall, and decided to move the campsite. Next stop - Storhøi.