Estimated net time	3-4 hours
Difficulty	No difficulties.
Drinking water	No access to running water during winter.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the ascent; descent unknown (February 2012).
Parking	Room for many cars at ski-centre car parks. NOK 40 per 2012.
Start height	770 metres
Vertical metres	710 metres for the roundtrip.
Trip distance	11.3 km
GPS-file	X
Map		Google Interactive Map
Route photo

From the junction between roads E39 and 5 at Jølster drive road 5 south-east towards Sogndal, a little more than 50 km. Turn right where signed for Hodlekve ski-centre. Drive approximately 1.5 km to one of the ski-centre's car parks and park here. There is a fee during the ski-centre's opening hours (NOK 40 per 2012).

Start your hike by taking the ski-lift up to its top. From here continue skiing north-west, where you're likely to to ski on machine made tracks, and you'll find small poles marking the route. After 1.3 km the route turns west/south-west and climbs the north-east slopes of Kambafjellet. The poles terminates at the foot of Kambafjellet.

You can skirt around Kambafjellet at either side, or you can ski across its summit. At the west end of Kambafjellet you will find a route which is less steep than north and south. When you've descended Kambafjellet continue west/south-west up the slopes of Blåfjellet. The first (east) top of Blåfjellet, where you'll find a proper cairn, is the lower of the two tops and can be passed on the right hand side. The continue up to Blåfjellet's main (west) summit, which is marked by a small cairn. The reason for the larger cairn at the lower top is probably because this point is on the Sogndal-Leikanger municipality border.

Start you descent by heading south and soon turn left (south-east) in order to find the best route down to Stilledalen. Down here you're likely to find prepared tracks, which can be followed all the way back to the ski-centre's car park.

19. February 2012

We had spent the night at Skei Hotel, and decided to leave Skei relatively early and spend most of the day at Hodlekve ski-centre. Sigurd would enjoy the fine off-piste routes, Elisabeth and Njål would do cross country skiing, and I intended to ski Blåfjellet. On our way from Skei to Hodlekve I more or less concluded that the poor visibility would mean I would go cross country as well, but when we reached the ski-centre things improved considerably and I decided to have a go at Blåfjellet. In order to save time and effort I bought a ticket for the ski-lift.

At the top of the lifts, at approximately 770 metres, I found a lot of other skiers putting skins on their skis. I assumed a lot of people were going to Blåfjellet, but soon found out that they were on their way directly north in order to enjoy off-piste skiing down on the north side. This was a bit disappointing, since I would have liked to have someone guide me in the right direction. But with small poles marking the route I felt relatively sure I would find the way. Soon the small poles proved more valuable than I had hoped for, since the visibility slowly started to diminish. When the poles ended I had the benefit of old tracks, which stood up in contrast to the wind swept areas, and it certainly helped my navigation.

When I got towards the summit of Kambafjellet I concluded that I would head up to the summit and that would be it; I only had a few tens of metres of visibility and the wind was very strong. But at Kambafjellet things improved a little so I applied my principles of "I can do another few steps/metres and stop only when I have to". I try to blend this with the general principle "turn around before it's too late", and personally believe I've found the correct blend.

As I got to the flatter area on Blåfjellet the visibility once again got worse, but the wind was not as strong as it had been further down and I was now guided by a few small cairns. And when it got very flat and I could vaguely see two small tops ahead of me I decided to assume that this was the two tops of Blåfjellet. Knowing that the western top is the higher I skirted past the first of these two, and ascended the second. When I got close to the summit and saw a small cairn I was very optimistic, and when I looked back and saw a much bigger cairn at the other top I was convinced I had made it, and was very happy.

I stopped at the summit only long enough to take two photos before starting my ascent, and looking for some shelter where I could stop and take the skins off my skis. This I found after having dropped 100 vertical metres or so, but the wind packed snow didn't offer much in terms of nice skiing. Hence I made my way down as best as I could, and only down at 950 metres I found good snow. From here the rest of the descent was very enjoyable, and by the time I got down to the car park the weather had improved considerably.

Next on the agenda was to wait for Sigurd to finish his snow boarding, and then the drive across to Hemsedal, which included having to drive across Hemsedalsfjellet in a convoy.
Photos 19.02.2012