Start of skiing route to Bakkestølnøse from Mørkedalen.
| Bakkestølnøse from
Mørkedalen (ski) Bakkestølnøse |
| Estimated net time | 2-2½ hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties, but you can expect the upper 50 vertical metres to have little snow. | ||
| Drinking water | No access to running water during winter. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (February 2013). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at car park by trail head. | ||
| Start height | 945 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 420 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 4.0 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From the Skogstad hotel in Hemsedal centre drive 4.6 km north on road 52, to the Grøndalen exit. Stay on road 52 another 17.0 km to a car park on the left hand side of the road. Note that this is the second of two car park close to each other. Park here.
Start skiing by crossing the road and ski directly uphill in a north-east and soon eastern direction. From 1120 metres turn slightly south-east and aim for the saddle between the summit and top 1337m to the right. When you get close to the saddle ascend this steep section via the ledge to the left of the saddle, and from here gradually turn north towards the summit, which is marked by a trigonometric point marker.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
We had arrived Golsfjellet the night before, where parents in law had rented a large cabin for the whole week. Sigurd and me were keen to get skiing kicked off right from day one, and we drove to the Hemsedal ski-centre after breakfast. I left Sigurd here and continued up into Mørkedalen, with the intention to hike Bakkestølnøse. I knew exactly where I wanted to start my skiing, since I had been up her last year, but didn't take on the skiing because of very strong wind. This year the conditions were much better, but still far from perfect because of very flat light.
It snowed lightly as I set out from road 52, but more of a concern was the fact that the wind was picking up. However, the snow was of very fine quality and I was highly motivated to get to the summit. Skiing was very easy up to 1300 metres, but ascending the ledge on the north side of Bakkestølnøse and top 1337m was slightly tricky because of poor visibility, and a mix of icy patches and cornices. And above the ledge there was very little snow so I decided to take my skis off and walked up to the summit.
The views from the summit were very limited, so there was no point hanging around for long, but I took the time to eat a chocolate and drink some water before walking back down to my skis. From here it was very careful skiing down the ledge, and also the start of the proper skiing was careful since the light conditions were very difficult, and the hope of using my ascent tracks as a means of getting some contrast was difficult since the wind has almost completely wiped them out. But as I got further down skiing got better, and the lower 150 metres or so were quite OK.