Tveitakvitingen challenge -

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Sunday, 25-Jul-2004 00:00

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Tveitakvitingen challenge

The characteristic Børdalsfjellet mountain (right)...

...and the Såtalendafjellet mountain...

Fuglafjellet tickled by clouds...

Scree cube...

View from Grøet towards Fuglafjellet mountain...

The imposing Storagrønovi peak...

...and view towards Jarlandsfjellet mountain...

The cliffs of Storagrønovi peak...

Fascinating horizon...

Green moss and rock...

Green carpet...

Melting snow and rock on Storagr?...

One of many nameless peaks that had to be conquered...

..on my way to Tveitakvitingen peak (hidden in fog, left)...

Camp. The elusive peak straight up in the distance...

I managed only three shots...

...before the wind forced me inside...

On my way down again from Storagrønovi peak...

...shifting weather as I retreat...

Welcomed back by Børdalsfjellet mountain...

One day I will return...

Having a weekend all for myself, I decided to do something I have been longing to do for some time: Leave the world behind and hike up a mountain. And not just any mountain. It had to be a mountain I had not hiked before, preferably a high one with great views, and it should not take too long to get to the area by public transport. Most importantly it should enable me to escape into nature without hearing or seeing too much of civilization.

After doing some research, partly through the great website http://www.hordafjell.com, my choice fell on Tveitakvitingen. It seemed to have all the ingredients - and then some...

I planned the hike all week and felt well prepared. Initially the weather forecast for the area was promising, but then suddenly on Thursday the forecast changed and indicated that there might be some rain during Saturday evening and through the night to Sunday. Knowing I had only this weekend to do a hike like this I decided to go anyway, and prepared for a wet night. I'm very glad I did.

Saturday came and I got on the bus to Norheimsund. Thanks to a very kind driver I was able to get off the bus by the starting point of the trail (allthough there was no bus stop there). With a heavy backpack strapped on I eagerly started the ascent and it soon dawned on me what kind of hike this would be...

I've been running and walking in the mountains near my home in Bergen, but the usual paths I take there can't really compare to the long haul to the summit of Tveitakvitingen. The ascent was reportedly about 8 or 9 kilometers long (with a vertical gain of about 1000 meters) and it should take about 4 hours to the summit at 1 299 meters. Beeing unfamilliar with the terrain, I spent more than 5 hours. And I didn't even make it to the summit...

The first part of the ascent was easy (but steep) and provided great views of the landscape and the neighbouring mountains. But as I got higher both the track and the cairns leading the way got less and less apparent, and after having climbed up the imposing Storagrønovi cliff, navigation became more challenging. It was not hard to determine which direction I should go, but I had difficulties trying to decide on the most effective route.

I had bought a map of the area and studied it well before and during the hike, but the terrain on the plateu above Storagrønovi is like a seemingly endless and undulating desert landscape of dark mountain rock and snowfields. The lack of familliar points makes it very difficult to determine distances, and in many places the rock is shaped as a natural barrier or wall that either has to be climbed or detoured. Due to the monotonous landscape it's very hard to determine the size of obstacles and rock/cliffs from a distance (the photos from my hike does not really reflect the dimensions of the landscape). Adding to that, I sometimes had to detour a bit more due to hidden ponds revealing themeselves late, or because of the risk of falling into a crack beetween a rotten snowfield and the rock. However, the beckoning Tveitakvitingen peak was allmost allways there in the distance making me more and more determined to get there.

After a long and tiring hike the landscape flattened out a bit and descended somewhat towards the base of the Tveitakvitingen peak. At that point I was pretty tired after having walked for about five hours, but as there was such a little way to go to the summit (in relative terms) I was still eager to go.

That's where I made my mistake.

I had not taken much notice of the light rain that had been coming down for at least half an hour. As I had kept a relative high speed on my ascent and carried some weight on my back, I was nice and warm before starting on the final ascent. I was still walking with light clothing, and beeing too eager to get on the summit when beeing so close, I did not stop for a moment to consider the situation properly.

My body and clothes were humid and wet as a result of the rain and from sweating. The weather started to change rapidly, with the breeze slowly but noticeably turning into a gale. Beeing in a hurry to summit before the weather conditions turned more serious, I did not spend enough time determining the most effective route to the summit. I really should have.

As I was working my way up it quicly dawned on me that the distance to the summit was a lot longer than I had expected. It was very difficult to determine the actual distance to the summit as the landscape lacked anything apart from rock and snow. The route I had chosen was littered with obstacles like rock barriers (that eiter had to be climbed or detoured) and steep, slippery scree. I was getting slowed down, and I was getting real tired too. Add to this a fast and thickening fog, a gale gaining in strength and hard rain drumming down on my head. I soon realized I would not make it to the top.

I was fast soaked to my skin and soon started to shiver from the cold. I quickly started to look for a good place to put up my tent. The problem was that the only choices I had was either hard rock (which would make it impossible to fasten the tent with plugs) or snow. I was trapped between a rock and a cold place...

I had no choice but to opt for the snow as I would need to fasten my tent in the gale. I quickly decided on a spot whith some wind protection offered by a rock wall. I got my tent up fast but it was now equally important to get inside and get warm before the situation got really serious. I was really cold at this time, so I skipped fastening the tent by rope (I would regret this later). Instead I got inside, scrambled out of my wet clothes and started to dry up using my towel. I then put on some new, dry clothes. But as I unpacked my sleeping bag came the nasty surprise that big parts of it had got wet straight through! I had no choice but to get inside it anyway allthough my dry clothes would get moist...

After a while I got the cooking set going and got some hot drink and food, which really helped.

By now the wind was gaining strenght to stormy proportions and I was thinking "is this really a midsummer evening?" while rain, hail and even sleet (!) drummed on my tent... After a while I actually had to get out again to quickly put some snow on the sides of my tent to stop the wind from getting a grip underneath it. The snow was cold on my already frozen hands so I used a pot from the Trangia set to shovel snow onto the tent. I was so worried about the ever stronger wind that I even considered to pack up and run for the lowlands, but in the end I was afraid that I would get in serious trouble if I tried to do that so I opted to stay put.

Everything inside the tent got moist after a while due to condensation from my breath and body and the general humidity of the air. Combined with the cold from the snow it was not the most pleasant camping I have done, and it reminded me of some grim weathered army exercises during winter in Troms (Northern Norway). But unfortunately I had no means to heat the tent effectively with this time (the Trangia set is mainly for cooking and does not offer that kind of heating ability)...

Sleeping was limited to a minimum as I was constantly worried that my tent would fly away with the storm. In fact, one time a few plugs got ripped out from the snow and made a part of my tent fly like a flag over my head! In the end I had no choice but to put on the wet clothes again (brrrrrrrrr) and venture out to properly fasten the tent. I even decided to put some rocks on the sides to keep the tent down. I don't like to do that because the sharp rock edges can potentially rip through the tent fibre when the wind shakes the tent. But the tent is (thankfully) made of rip-stop nylon, and I felt that I had no choice as the plugs were beeing ripped out of the rotten snow too easily.

During that night I was quite worried sometimes when the wind really took hold of my tent. I have a tunnel tent without storm mats. Ideally, in those circumstances, I should have had a cone tent as it wouldn't flutter so much in the strong wind. My mobile phone connection was out of range too, so I could not call someone to inform them of my situation either. I had told people where I was going and that I would spend the night. Halfway through the hike I had even talked to a friend and told him that everything was looking good (which it was), so no one knew of my situation. I was on my own. This had been my own choice of course, so I could not complain. I thought of how embarrassing it would be to have a search party come looking for me if this weather continued...

I spent the next 12 hours in the sleeping bag munching on some bisquits and nuts while wondering if the weather would ever change. Allmost everything in my backpack was wet (I really should have bought that backpack poncho - and one for myself too!) apart from some clothes in a plastic bag (which I was saving for the descent). There was little to do but staying in my sleeping bag and shudder through the night.

At seven o'clock in the morning the weather had (thankfully) improved a bit so I decided to break camp and get off the mountain. I figured I could catch a bus down in the valley if I started then, and I had really had enough of camping life anyway. I managed to pack up and get going quite quickly, and allthough there still was a gale I made good progress without freezing too much. I had abandoned any thoughts of the summit a long time ago - now I just wanted to get home!

It took just as long to pass the upper plateau on my way back as on my way up. This was easily the most tiring and difficult part of the hike, not only because of the weather but also due to the difficult terrain.

After having reached the cliffs of Storagrønovi peak I found a sensible route down to the plateau beneath. The winds were strong up there, and beeing tired and carrying a wet and heavy backpack I had to be careful not to loose my balance and fall off the cliffs. Despite the conditions I had tremendous views into the deep Raunebottsdalen valley from the southern side of Storagrønovi. I had to stop many times to gaze at the many impressively high waterfalls which had been fed so much water during the night.

As soon as I had got down from Storagrønovi the conditions changed for the better. Allthough there was still some rain, then at least the wind was nothing like that on the plateau. Knowing I had passed the most difficult obstacles my mood changed and I started to enjoy the surroundings a bit more. The last part of the hike down was more about finding the path again. After the heavy rainfall, there were plenty of bustling creeks and streams at least twice the size of what they were the day before. After a while I found some cairns and soon I was back on track.

The last fourth of the descent was easy, and it did not take half as long to get down as to get up. Still, when I got down my knees were real sore from all the jumping I had done from rock to rock carrying the heavy backpack.

I wish I could have taken more photos of this hike, but the cold made the camera batteries go out in an instant. I had the camera with me in my sleeping bag and managed a few shots near the summit, but for most of the time I stayed inside the tent as the conditions were just too inhospitable to run around and take photos.

I've been reminded of a few lessons for life on this hike. Most notably the one about never to underestimate the mountains. I already knew that, but it is strange how the ability to ignore a situation due to exessive eagerness can make you forget about the basics. Luckily I had prepared well, so now it's just another good story to tell around the campfire instead.

Still, lessons learned...

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