Hordaland Mountains - Route Descriptions - Skrott, Manfjellet, Geitafjellet

Norwegian Mountains

Skrott, 1320m
Manfjellet, 1263m
Geitafjellet, 1255m
Glynt, 1253m

Mountain area :	Øystese
Fylke/Kommune :	Hordaland/Kvam
Map :	1215 I Norheimsund (Statens Kartverk, Norge 1:50 000)
Primary Factor:	Skrott: 467m (Fuglafjellet)
Primary Factor:	Glynt: 43m (Skrott)
Primary Factor:	Manfjellet: 213m (Skrott)
Primary Factor:	Geitafjellet: 105m (Skrott)
Hiked :	Aug 00, Dec 01, Aug 02, Jan 04
See also :	Ådni
See also :	Kjetilsnuten
See also :	Fuglafjellet
See also :	Melstveitåsen
See also :	Petter's Skrott page

The mountains seen from Torefjellet

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Introduction

From what I understand, based on conversations, these mountains are not considered as part of Kvamskogen, neither Voss. Even if one can reach these two mountain regions through very high passes. As such, I have assigned Øystese as the mountain region name. Øystese is the nearest community, and it appears as people there have a strong connection with these mountains.

All these mountains can be done in one long hike, as described on this page. Although none of the mountains are difficult to ascend, the plateau has some steep sides. Especially towards the west. You can not get down wherever you'd like.

I have not been able to discover the origins of the mountain names. "Skrott" is a less typical name for a Norwegian mountain. "Skrott" may in Norwegian denote a body, in some form. Skrott has a very characteristic shape from a couple of angles, but this is only speculation on my part. "Glynt" is a dialect for "little boy", or "the little one". As Glynt lies between the higher Skrott and Geitafjellet, this is a plausible explanation.

The views are amazing from this plateau. Kvamskogen in the west, Bergsdalen and Stølsheimen in the north, the Hardangerfjord and Folgefonna glacier in the south, and the Voss mountains in the east.

Primary Factor:

Skrott (M711: 1320m, Ø.K: -) has a primary factor of 467m towards the higher Fuglafjellet (1334m). The saddle is found just east of the Vending pass. Ref. Økonomisk Kartverk (5m contours), you cross the 855m contours on the high route, but not 850m. The saddle height is interpolated to 853m.

Glynt (M711: 1253m, Ø.K: -) has a primary factor of 61m towards the higher Skrott (1320m). The saddle is found on the high ridge between the mountains. Ref. M711 (20m contours), you cross the 1220m contours on the high route, but not 1200m. The saddle height is interpolated to 1210m.

Geitafjellet (M711: 1255m, Ø.K: -) has a primary factor of 105m towards the higher Skrott (1320m). The saddle is found near the Breidablikk cabins. Ref. M711 (20m contours), you cross the 1160m contours on the high route, but not 1140m. The saddle height is interpolated to 1150m.

Manfjellet (M711: 1263m, Ø.K: -) has a primary factor of 213m towards the higher Skrott (1320m). The saddle is found just north of lake Håstabbtjørn. This lake drains south, so the pass has to be north of the lake. Ref. M711 (20m contours), you cross the 1060m contours on the high route, but not 1040m. The saddle height is interpolated to 1050m.

Trail descriptions:

Roundtrip from Fitjadalen, all summits (summer/autumn)

Difficulty : Easy for experienced hikers. Light scrambling a few places
Cumbersome terrain. No exposure

Risk : Low

Distance : Approx. 18-19Km round-trip

Time : 7-9 hours round-trip

Starting Elev.: Approx. 260-270m

Click for detail map
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Access:
From Bergen, follow highway E16 east towards Voss/Oslo. At the Trengereid junction, turn right and follow highway 7. Drive down to the Samnangerfjord, and across the Kvamskogen mountain region. Continue down to Norheimsund by the Hardangerfjord, and follow highway 7 east/north to Øystese.
At Øystese, exit to the left in the roundabout in the middle of Øystese centre. Follow the road towards Sjusete, Soldal and Fitjadalen. At approx. 5,8Km from the roundabout, you should see the "Laupsa-Flyane" on a wooden sign on the right hand side of the road. You are almost at the road end, and you may either find parking on the left hand side of the road, or drive a few hundred meters to the Fitjadalen trailhead parking area. The road from Øystese to Fitjadalen is a paved, narrow road. Don't exit onto any gravel roads. Make a mental note of turnouts along the way. There is significant traffic due to all the huts in Fitjadalen.

The trail:

Manfjellet
Next to the "Laupsa-Flyane" sign, you should see a vague trail that runs up towards the forest, on the right hand side of the cabins. The trail gets more visible along the way, and is marked with various items along the way (sticks, tiny cairns, metal, etc). By people who cares. The trail is narrow, and you are bound to get wet after rain. The ascent up through the forest is gentle. No particular steep sections. Note that from the parking, the trail maintains a NW direction, but changes to east a bit up in the forest. This is clearly not in the direction of the summit, but just be happy that the trail is there. Eventually, you arrive the cabins at Laupsafyane, just above the forest.
You have a steep section in front of you (behind the huts), and you might see a trail that runs to your left. This trail probably takes you to the Håsete hut, so don't go there. You have to get on the upper ridge somehow, and heading straight up, to the right of the huts, might be your best bet. Once on the upper level, take direction towards Skrott (NW) and head all the way to the side that falls down to Smørdalen valley. From here on, stick to a northern direction all the way to the summit. You've been off trail ever since Laupsaflyane, but you might see tiny cairns here and there. If you run into a small lake just SW of the summit block, you will see red markings (dots and arrows) that will lead you all the way to the summit. The summit block is really steep and the summit is reached from east (you have to go half way around the summit block). For the eager scrambler, earlier ascent routes may be available. On Manfjellet, the cairn marks the summit. In a wooden box, you will find a summit register.

Geitafjellet
You will see Geitafjellet from Manfjellet, if weather permits. Stick to a NW route to the north end of Håstabbtjørn (lake 1038). The terrain is cumbersome with lots of ledges, but one can normally find "channels", minimizing the ups and downs. At the north end of the lake, head almost all the way down to the lake to make it over to the Glynt foothills. This is also a cumbersome area, but a very useful ledge will save you from having to go down all the way to the lake, but it requires some routefinding (upwards).
Once on the other side of the lake, continue NW until the northern end of the Glynt ridge. Don't climb too high, but don't go too low either. Turn west on the north end of the Glynt ridge. You should see the famous Breidablikk hut straight ahead. Head towards the hut and turn NW when you see a useful route up to Geitafjellet. You will probably arrive the summit block through a small corridor. It's hard to tell if the highest point is on your left on your right. Visit both high points to be sure. You will not see a cairn up here, only rocks that denote a high point. The cairn is said to be lower, further SW.

Glynt
From Geitafjellet, head towards Breidablikk hut. At the hut, turn left and head straight for the north end of the Glynt ridge. On the ridge, you will find small cairns that leads all the way to the top (more to the right hand side of the ridge). The summit is marked by a modest rock pointing upwards.

Skrott
From Glynt, head SE (left) towards the obvious beginning of the Skrott ridge. Don't go around the ridge, but climb straight up. Early on, you should see small cairns that leads you all the way to the summit. Technically, this is the most complex section of the entire hike. The scrambling is easy, but required. The Skrott high point is probably a upward single rock (similar to Glynt), a couple of minutes before the summit cairn.

Descent from Skrott (standard route to Skrott)
Continue over the Skrott summit, heading south. You will see another cairn further down. Shortly after the second large cairn, two smaller cairns are put in place to make you turn 90 degrees to the right. You immediately enter a wide ledge that marks the beginning of a long ledge system leading down to the hut at 1100m, which you see below you. Note that in winter, when the snow is hard and icy, this ledge could be somewhat tricky. An ice axe and crampons will come in handy here. In icy conditions, axe and crampons is also required for a safe descent from Skrott summit.
At the 1100m hut, locate the main hiking trail just behind the hut, and follow this trail downwards. At approx. 800m you arrive the Håsete hut, and the main trail continue to your right. After a small open section, you enter the forest, where the trail switches back and forth. Very convenient when you go up this trail. The trail ends up on a gravel road, just above the Fitjadalen parking area. Follow this road all the way to your car. The hike from the Skrott summit car down to Fitjadalen is nearly 5Km.

Skrott Trip report Jan 04 2004:

I wanted my friend Petter Bjørstad to come along for a Skrott hike. I wanted to show him the beautiful nature in Fitjadalen and Vossadalen valleys. The plan was to hike the Skrott south ridge, as I had to give up just before the summit ridge on an earlier hike.
The Christmas and new year weather had been less than perfect, but this Sunday, the forecast was a fairly good day. It had snowed non-stop for two days and I was concerned if we would be able to drive up to Fitjadalen. We left Bergen early morning and arrived Øystese around 08:30AM. A heroic effort to get the car up the hill failed, and we had to park down in Øystese. The time was 09:00AM when we started the long hike upwards with the skis on the backpacks. The hike from Øystese to Fitjadalen is 6Km.
On top of the hill, before arriving lake Fitjadalsvatnet we put the skis on. The weather was just great. Only some local fog was covering Skrott summit. The road along the lake was not plowed, and a trail had to be broken. We reached the Skrott trailhead 10:30AM and concluded that the spruce forest was not skiing terrain. The hike up the forest was hard. Snow up the knees, significant amount of snow falling down the trees as our skis got tangled up and ice below the snow. Fortunately, we managed to stick with the trail, avoid any bush wars. We walked up to 660m and put the skis on.
It was Petter's turn to break the trail with skis. His skiing condition is far better than mine, and I was quite happy following in his tracks. At Håsete I was determined to give up the south ridge. I had this growing feeling that the ridge would be icy. We were carrying ice axes and crampons, ready for rough terrain, but we would be running out of time. Besides, I was exhausted, and wondered if I would reach the summit even if we took the standard route. We switchbacked up the hill from Håsete to the 1100m hut, and the hill seemed to last forever. Arriving the hut was helpful for my moral, and I knew I would make it to the summit today. We skied the standard route which runs up a very convenient ledge system. In winter, this looks like one long ledge. The final section of the ledge is normally icy, and we had to show caution as we passed. Finally we were on the summit ridge, and reached the summit cairn 14:30PM. It had taken us 5,5 hours of near non-stop walking and skiing from Øystese. In deep snow. Not too bad, we reckoned. It would be safe to assume we were the first visitors on this summit in 2004.
We spent only 5 minutes on the summit. It had started to snow, and we wanted to descend as far as possible before darkness. The snow ceased at 1100m and we could follow our tracks down the mountain. The descent went quite fast. It just felt great to ski down the powder snow all the way to 660m where we took the skis off. We had been digging "channels" on our way up the forest, which were difficult to ski in. Arriving lake Fitjadalsvatnet, I did not look forward to the long ski-trip along the lake. The road was now plowed and we had to ski on ice along the lake. A bit more strenuous, but the skis seemed to run faster. As we reached the point where we only had downhill left, we put the headlights on. It was useful to see the asphalt that popped up here and there on the icy road. The skis were running way too fast and the solution was to ski on the snow that was plowed to the side. We reached the car just after 17:00PM, I summarized the hike as follows: a beautiful day in a winter dressed mountains, but being far too exhausted to enjoy a single moment. It was an "adult" trip. 8 hours total trip time, 1320m vertical gain and 22Km of stomping and skiing in deep snow.

Pictures from the Jan 04 2004 hike:

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Trip report Aug 03 2002:

I had some major scores to settle with this region. One wonderful winter ascent on Skrott without camera. One failed attempt on Manfjellet because of too much snow. One failed attempt on Manfjellet because of too hard snow and no ice axe. One failed attempt on Geitafjellet from the Hamlagrø side because I couldn't find a way up. One failed attempt on Skrott's south side because of too hard snow and no ice axe. I promised myself to come back in sunny weather and do'em all!
Aug 03 2002 was such a sunny day, and I triple checked the backpack. I had been to Skrott three times already, including Glynt, and didn't really need to do these two mountains, but decided to make this a 4 peaks-in-a-trip hike. I had brand new boots for the occasion, and figured that if this trip wouldn't break them in, no hike would. After 30 minutes, band aid had to come on, and the remaining 5,5 hours of the hike was "ouch, ouch, ouch".
The weather was however just too great to focus on blisters, and I had the greatest hike in a long, long time (in Norway). The terrain was fairly obvious, and I knew the region rather well. The map never came out. I just hiked around and enjoyed myself.
On my down from Geitafjellet, I stopped by the Breidablikk huts. I knew of these huts, as I had met the owners on a previous hike to Skrott. The hut complex is truly beautiful. These huts have been developed over 3-4 decades, with a view that anyone should envy. Between the huts, a small pond (said to be man-made) makes the scenery perfect. I feel a little ashamed to express that I would prefer if the huts weren't around. I'm glad for the people who can enjoy this little paradise, but this wasn't something I wanted to see, on my "wilderness" hike. The complex apparently started out as a small hunting lodge, but has grown over the years. I must admit they have done a great job in keeping the complex neutral to the surroundings, but it's still a large, private hut complex. OK, enough rant.
Then my camera slipped and fell onto rock, and something with the zoom isn't working anymore. I just can't picture a life without a (operative) digital camera, so now I'm in a state of grief. But tomorrow I will focus on the right things. It could have been me falling onto rock....
I did the hike in 6 hours. Left the trailhead at 10:15PM, reached Manfjellet 12:00, left Geitafjellet 13:45, left Skrott 15:00PM and arrived the car 16:10PM. I hiked in quick pace most of the way. Had only a quick break for food on Geitafjellet. Muffins with strawberry. Yum. I did the entire hike without a sweater in the bright sunshine. My virtual book "things that won't happen to you", clearly stated that "You won't get a sunburn. No matter the sun and the snow.!" To my surprise, I noticed this (painful) reddish color all over my upper body (except for where the backpack had protected me), when I got back home. But it was a great hike, nevertheless!

Pictures from the Aug 03 2002 hike:

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