Parking and trail head is on the other side of road 51 from this
wooden tent.| Bitihorn from
Stavtjerni Bitihorn |
| Estimated net time | 3-3½ hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties. |
| Drinking water | Access to running water from some small streams in the first half of the route. |
| GSM coverage | Unknown (July 2009). |
| Parking | Room for many cars at the car park at trail head. |
| Start height | 1065 metres |
| Vertical metres | 545 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 6.8 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
Parking and trail head is on the other side of road 51 from this
wooden tent. |
Two potential access routes for this hike are
[a]
From road E6 drive to Otta and turn west towards Stryn and Lom on road 15. After 36.0 km turn left onto road 51, where signed for "Fagernes". Drive across Valdresflya to the hotel at Bygdin, 71.8 km from road 15, and then continue another 1.1 km until you have a wooden tent on your left hand side. Park at the large car park on the right hand side of road 51.
[b]
From Fagernes drive 48.3 km north on road 51, until you have a wooden tent on your right hand side. Park at the large car park on the left hand side of road 51.
From the car park follow the well defined path south-west, and later south, all the way to the summit.
Descend via your ascent route.
Bitihorn was the prime target for the first leg of our summer holiday. After my pre-breakfast failed attempt at Knutshøe (there was less than 50 metres visibility, and I thought I had been to the summit, but my GPS-track showed that I hadn't been to the highest point), the whole family had a very good breakfast at Bygdin Fjellhotel. After breakfast we drove across to Bitihorn trail head, determined to hike the mountain although the visibility was poor and it was raining.
We set out around 10am this miserable Saturday morning, on the obvious path to the summit. Without the good path there is no way we would have taken on this hike with the kids.
The summit stop wasn't a long one, since nothing at all of any interest could be seen, except the not very nice building and tower on the summit. So after a couple of biscuits and a little to drink we headed back down. During the descent the weather gradually improved, and it even stopped raining. This was good news for the tens of hikers we met a little above trail head, but there was no way we were going back up. As we got into the cars and started on the long drive south to Østfold we could even see glimpses of the summit from the road. This made me, for the nth time, quote Arnt; "it's better to have been there than not to have been there ...".