Norwegian Mountains, Sogn og Fjordane
Tarvaldsegga, Mar 7 2009
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I'm not very good at planning my weekend hikes on beforehand. I normally just wait for the incoming vibes and see where they lead me. I may end up low, high, near or far. Today's vibes sent me on a cool rollercoaster trip on Stadlandet. During breakfast, I decided that I wanted to visit Tarvaldsegga, Rivjehornet and Kjerringa. I reckoned that this would be a very, very long day on the road.
I arrived at Årvik 8:46am, and watched the 8:45am ferry leave. Well OK, that gave me 29 minutes to enjoy 3 bananas and yesterday's newspaper. Arriving at Koparnes, 40 minutes later, I looked forward to visit new places. Before I started hiking mountains, I used to drive around Norway, visiting new places. And now I could do both. I had already visited Syvde, but I had never been to Sylte or Åheim. And certainly not to Stadlandet, which seemed so far away. But yet is quite near. Årvik is only 25 minutes away from home, the ferry takes 10 minutes and it only took me 40 minutes to drive from Koparnes to Årsheim on Stadlandet. That's about the time it used to take me to get from Bergen to Voss, which I considered to be quite near.
Tarvaldsegga seen from Store Krokhornet
(Click for larger image)
The GPS led me directly to the Tarvaldsegga trailhead. The weather wasn't superb, but OK. I was happy to see the Tarvaldseggja signpost, and now it was just a matter of bagging the first top. The path was easy to follow and I was able to maintain a decent pace. I reached snow on the ground at 500m elevation and the wind was definitely picking up speed. I put on some extra clothes, and strolled merrily to the top of Tarvaldsegga. I reached the summit cairn 11:06am, 44 minutes after leaving the trailhead. The vertical gain was approx. 370m.
Snow dance on Tarvaldsegga
(Click for larger image)
I enjoyed myself big-time. A heap of unfamilar mountains could be seen to the south, and the sky was turning more and more blue. A magic light was shining on the snow and my tracks in it. Indeed, it was very windy, and "all sort of things" flew by (...), but Tarvaldsegga was just a great, great place to be. Yet, I looked forward to the descent; following my steps in the snow, watching the sun break through and with the wide, wide ocean ahead of me. The picture below says it all...
Descending Tarvaldsegga
(Click for larger image)
I was back at the trailhead 11:45am, after having visited Orren on the way down. Breakfast seemed like a long time ago, and I needed refill. I drove down to Selje and bought a load of Danish pastry at the local store (Wienerbrød in Norwegian). I don't think I've eaten this since my school days, and had forgotten what it was called. They looked really unhealthy, so I assumed they would get me through the day. And they did. Plus I had never been to Selje before, so that was an additional bonus.
After a fat lunch and today's newspaper, I headed towards Rivjehornet above Borgundvågen.
