Snøhetta

July 21, 2024

2286m

Hjerkinn, Norway

Snøhetta is the second “ultra prominent peak” after Galdhøpiggen in the southern Scandinavia and thereafter one of the major objectives in this trip. I happened to have about 10 days in late July to do some peak-bagging in Norway between the sections in Turkey and Mongolia. The original plan was to join Adam as him and I would be sharing the same itinerary in both Turkey and Mongolia but then I managed to convince Erica to come along. It would be difficult, if not impossible to fit three people with luggage in one rental vehicle and I was very sure that Erica and Adam would want different objectives/itinerary, so the decision was made for Erica and I to rent a separate car and be independent. Norway is a very big country and I decided to stick to the southern part due to the limited time in this trip, even though there are more exciting places to the far north inside the Arctic circle. There are more than enough objectives to keep us busy in the south anyway. In terms of the exact itinerary we would decide one day at a time as the weather is very fickle in this part of the world, but Snøhetta is the only objective with some access complications. The government decided to introduce a quota system to protect the fragile environment up high so tourists and hikers must take a bus to get in, and such requires booking in advance. I’ve read a few trip reports that it’s possible to just show up the night before but I wanted to be 100% certain. After deciding the weather on the first day would be “good enough” for Snøhetta despite the high winds I made Adam to secure our bus tickets through Petter. The booking system is tricky for us foreigners because they require a Norwegian card, so it’s good that we have friends from this country.

Adam and I arrived from Turkish Airlines at 11 am on the 20th but Erica wouldn’t arrive until 4:30 pm even if there’s no delay. Adam had booked us spots in a hostel in the small village of Dombås not far from the trail-head so he drove out there alone to scout things out, whereas I would wait in the airport for Erica’s arrival. While waiting I learnt that I had accidently booked an electric rental car and that would not be okay for the travelling in these remote locations. I showed up at Budget and got the problem fixed, but had to pay extra 27 EUR per day because the government had put up some regulations to make petroleum difficult in this country. The hostel that Adam found turned out to be “not great” so Erica and I would spend the night somewhere in the vicinity camping. We took our time making several stops for food (very expensive) and scenery, and made to Dombås at around 1 am. This is the northernmost latitude I’ve ever been to and the night never became totally dark at this time of a year. We were completely exhausted so after trying out a few locations we decided to just camp at a random parking area 1 min from Adam’s hostel.

Our first stop was in a sushi restaurant

We brought our take-away dinner to a lake shore viewpoint

Erica in front of an amazing dusk horizon

Erica taking in the views. The dusk colours lasted for hours at this latitude

The plan was to meet up at 6:20 am and Adam decided to skip this peak due to the forecasted high winds. It would certainly be unpleasant but 60-80 km/h gusts were normal for me in the good ol’ days in the Canadian Rockies, and I thought this could be a good training trip for Erica for our future high altitude expeditions, so the two of us would stick to the plan. Adam had bought us two fuel canisters so we were able to prepare our usual ramen breakfast, and then showed up at Hjerkinn an hour later with half an hour’s time to spare. We opted to park at a free lot and walk ~200 m to the visitor center where everyone else had been waiting. The bus showed up on time. Everyone else had booked the tickets beforehand so it’s definitely good that we did not show up here empty handed. It also seemed like we were the only foreigners but most people in Norway speak decent English. The ride was decently scenic with sightings of our objectives as well as sheep and oax, and we were dropped off half an hour later at the trail-head village of Snøheim.

I prepared for our breakfast on the following day

Erica at the village of Hjerkinn where the bus ride starts from

We got dropped off at the trail-head village of Snøheim

There are quite a few trails to choose from based on the Gaia map but it seemed like everyone was taking the same route, skirting that trail-head lake Stridåtjønn on the south-west side. The trail was then good for a few kilometers but after the main creek crossing (barely doable without wetting our feet) the trail had become more or less a “path” on the boulder fields. The route had been well marked with poles and cairns but the entire east ridge of Snøhetta is made of boulders. Thankfully most of the boulders were stable but the strong winds did make the hopping difficult at times. The winds were not as strong as forecasted though, thankfully. We were able to push all the way onto the uppermost east ridge before donning any layer, but eventually we opted to call for a break at a sheltered spot to have some food and drink. There was one guy in his shorts summitting ahead of us and many others were wearing shorts coming from behind, and I bet the Norwegians have very different tolerance for suffering than the North Americans. I bet they wouldn’t even call this day “windy” at all. Erica and I extended our hike for a few hundred meters westwards beyond the summit for some additional views and I thought it was worth the effort.

Erica starting the long and monotonous plod

Erica with some incredible tundra landscape

Clouds forming above our objective, Snøhetta

Soon we would find out the gigantic cairns in this country

Erica in front of the glacial melt lake Istjørni

A closer look at Istjørni, the glacial lake

The wind was brutal such that we must lean into it

Looking back down eastwards. The terrain is more rolling hills

Taking a break in a slightly sheltered spot

Arriving at the summit, looking past the west peaks towards Svånåtindan

Erica on the summit heli pad of Snøhetta

Another photo of Erica and I on the summit of our first Norwegian peak together

Erica following me traversing towards the middle summit

That glacial lake of Istjørni from the summit

Erica on the summit with the west peaks and Svånåtindan behind

As you can see, the weather was blowing in

Me trying to gain an extra meter of prominence…

One last photo of Erica on Snøhetta before heading down

The ceiling had dropped so we eventually decided to go down as we wouldn’t be getting too much views anymore anyway. I spotted some snow on the skier’s right of the route and used that to accelerate at least 100 vertical meters of the descent, but the rest of the boulder-hopping wasn’t actually that terrible on the way down, despite the high winds. We more or less made a single dash back to the village of Snøheim and finished the round trip in under 4.5 hours. It was definitely longer and more tiring than I thought. We then spent the next hour chilling and waiting at the village’s hostel and I also got our return bus tickets booked with the help of their staffs. It turned out that we would still need to reserve our return tickets but when Petter mentioned it I refused to do so because we wouldn’t know how long this hike would take. We were definitely lucky to get our spots for the 2:30 pm ride down, with only about an hour of waiting at the village and no additional cost. We then slowly drove down to Dombås for lunch and in which I got my first ever elk burger. This was also our first Norwegian meal in this trip and it was excellent. The staff also helped us calling and reserving the hotel for the night as we didn’t have any Norwegian number. The decision was made to dash to the west coast and drive to our hotel at Nordfjørdeid would take another 4 hours but en route we decided to check out Blåhøe, a drive-up P600m objective that Adam did in the previous day by himself.