Gråkallen trail head by Skistua.
| Gråkallen counter
clock-wise from Skistua Gråkallen |
| Estimated net time | Less than one hour. | ||
| Difficulty | You're likely to have to climb one or two fences, but apart from that there are no difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No stable access to running water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (April 2015). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars at the car park by Skistua. | ||
| Start height | 430 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 130 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 1.8 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Trondheim centre drive to the west side of the city, following signs for Sverresborg, and then follow the road towards Skistua. Drive all the way up the the upper car park by lake Blomstertjønna and find parking around the start of the service road which you're not allowed to drive.
Walk up the service road blocked for normal traffic (only "blocked" by a sign; there's no physical barrier) and follow this road up to a gate outside the military area. Cross the gate (it's likely not to be locked), and continue all the way to the end of the road, where there is some shelter. At the end of the shelter head off-path uphill a short steep hill, and the continue up to the summit where there is a large green dome (radar?).
Descend by heading off-path directly down the ski-slopes and the turn left and walk across some boggy terrain to where you parked your car.
The sun was partly shining when I woke up this Saturday, and I had agreed with Stig to meet in the hotel reception at 07:30 for a quick hike up to Gråkallen before breakfast. After a little bit of messing around getting out of Trondheim, partly caused by my car's GPS not having full control of which roads were one-way roads, we soon found our way up to Skistua.
We walked up the service road, crossed the unlocked gate, and continued to the end of the road. From here we headed up steep snow by kicking steps into the firm but not icy snow, and then the last few metres to the summit plateau. From here we enjoyed a fine view across Trondheim, before hitting the south ski-slope back down towards the car. Back around the car we found many crates of empty bear bottles, a 50 NOK note, a tool to spread ski-wax, and a fair bit of garbage in general. We picked up the note and the ski-wax tool, and then headed back to the hotel for a shower and well deserved breakfast, before heading for the sports halls and matches number two and three in the regional handball play-offs.