Byrkjevollhornet ascent from Eikesætra.
| Byrkjevollhornet
counter clock-wise from Eikesætra Byrkjevollhornet |
| Estimated net time | 2-2½ hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties, but there are some steep sections, and care must be shown if there are cornices along the east edge. | ||
| Drinking water | Access to running water from the stream through Eikedalen, and also a small stream draining from the small lake at 510 metres during ascent. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route but a little patchy below the edge (November 2012). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars at trail head. | ||
| Start height | 386 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 405 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 3.9 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
|
||
| Route photo |
| ||
Drive to the intersection of roads 659 and 661 by Eidet (Tennfjord). Turn right and drive 2.1 km towards Vatne. Turn left and and drive road 661 towards Vestnes, 17.0 km. Here you will find a mountain road on your right hand side, heading uphill in a south-east direction. This is 3.6 km from where the road in Vestrefjorden turns from south to north. Follow this mountain road, which is of variable quality, 2.6 km until the road ends. Park here.
From the car park you will see a number of wooden poles with blue paint, marking a vague path heading directly west down towards the stream. Cross the stream and soon leave the path towards west and take on the steep slopes in Byrkjevollhornet's east side. When you get up to 490 metres you will meet a track traversing the hill side. Turn left onto this track and follow it up to the small lake, which you pass on the left hand side. Continue past the lake and into the basin. From here there are several options, of which the shortest heads up to the right. This section is relatively steep but no difficulties as long as there are no cornices up on the edge.
When you get up to the edge turn right and follow the path up to a small top and then across to the summit. The summit is not marked in any way.
From the summit head back down to where you reached the summit ridge. Continue another 500 metres, to the saddle, and descend from the northern part of the flat saddle. The slopes down here are not as steep as where you ascended further north, and will bring you down to the north end of lake Holevatnet. Cross the dam and follow the path north and back to your car.
This Sunday was predicted to be grey and wet, but on Saturday the forecasts improved, so I asked Elisabeth and Njål if we should go for a hike together. The two options were Byrkjevollhornet and Snaufjellet, and because of the shorter drive we concluded that Byrkjevollhornet would be the best candidate.
I knew we could hike Byrkjevollhornet from west, but an ascent from east seemed more interesting, although I wasn't sure exactly how steep it would be. But by looking at photos I had taken during a hike of Rekdalshesten a few years back I concluded that it shouldn't be too steep, and that there were several options. This was confirmed when we got up to Eikesætra, and we decided to try the steeper of the two main alternatives, via the northern basin. We could see that there were remainders of cornices, but that there was a section without snow at the south end of the edge above the basin.
When we got up into the basin we could see that there was also a section without snow at the north end of the edge above the basin, and despite the slopes up here looked quite steep we decided to go for this more direct route. This worked out well, with a touch of care when crossing a short section of hard snow before we reached the ridge. From here it was easy walking across to a slightly windy summit.
We had decided to make it a round trip even before we started our hike, and with fine hiking conditions we definitely wanted to do the 500+ metres along the wide summit ridge to the southern basin. Descending here required another short crossing of hard snow, but with Elisabeth kicking some steps into the snow, to allow Njål a safer descent, it all worked out fine. The rest of the descent was easy hiking, with my two hiking mates descending a bit quicker than me.