Trail head for Fusafjellet, above Fusa.
| Fusafjellet from Fusa Fusafjellet |
| Estimated net time | 2½-3 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | Good access to drinking water from the stream along the forest road. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (April 2010). | ||
| Parking | Room for a few cars at trail head. | ||
| Start height | 95 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 640 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 8.0 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Bergen drive south on road E39 to Os, and then continue towards Hatvik on road 552. At Hatvik take the ferry across to Venjaneset, and then drive 3.0 km along road 552. Turn right onto a gravel road immediately after a (white per 2010) wooden building and just before a left curve. Drive around the wooden building and turn right a little more than 100 metres from road 552. Drive another 600 metres to a small car park on the left hand side of the road. Park here.
Walk uphill along the forest road, ignoring any roads going off to left or right. After approximately 350 metres the road forks (a proper "Y"). There are signs for Fusafjellet/Storehorga along both legs of the fork, and it doesn't matter which leg you choose. The rest of the route description assumes you follow the left leg, which is slightly shorter. After another 850 metres you get to a four-way junction, where the right leg of the fork further down comes in from the right. You turn left here, and then turn right onto a path less than 100 metres later. Follow this path, which is a bit boggy in places, east and soon north. When you get above the forest you reach a path fork, where the right leg is signed for "Breistølhytta" and left is signed for "Storehorga"; follow the left leg. Stay on this path up to Vetlehorga, then descend a little, before the path climbs north-east up to the summit. The summit is marked by a proper cairn.
The descent is best done by reversing the ascent route.
This Monday was the start of my second week at our factory at Hagavik, and I had planned to make a visit to Fusafjellet independent of what the weather would be. When I left work a little after 16:00 the fog was hanging low, but no rain, and I remained faithful to my plan. I first dropped a couple of colleagues off at their hotel, and then headed across to Hatvik. Here I got the ferry to Venjaneset, and used one of the ferry's toilets to get changed into hiking gear. After the short drive along road 552, and some messing about trying to locate the forest road to drive towards trail head, I was ready to start my hike at 16:55.
When I got up to around 500 metres I entered the thick fog, and visibility was down to a few tens of metres. But thanks to a well used path and several signs for "Storehorga" navigation was no issue. But the weather deteriorated, and soon the fog was accompanied by rain and a fairly strong wind. Any hope of getting above the fog gradually left me, and my only focus was to make sure I was able to follow the path, which wasn't always easy because of places with snow.
At the summit I took one photo of the cairn before heading back down. The descent was considerably "shortened" by spending around 20 minutes on the phone trying to organize a friendly game for the boys-14 I'm coaching, which in turn prevented me from running, making me miss the ferry by a couple of minutes. However, the positive side of missing the ferry was that I had time to treat myself with a proper hamburger at the Venjaneset ferry port.