Grytavasstinden trail head at Jasvoll.
Overview of upper part of route to Grytavasstinden.
Route up Grytavasstinden's east slopes.
Route along Grytavasstinden's south-east shoulder.
| Grytavasstinden counter
clock-wise from Jasvoll Grytavasstinden |
| Estimated net time | 7-9 hours | ||
| Difficulty | Long and strenuous hike, with a couple of sections needing care and use of hands. The crux of the hike is a short scramble during ascent, which is slightly exposed and definitely needs the use of hands on good hand holds. The descent from the summit is steep with some loose gravel, requiring a touch of concentration. In general there are no technically difficult sections, but some exposure. | ||
| Drinking water | Several sources of running water through the valley. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage a little into the valley and in the summit area (August 2012). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at car park by trail head. | ||
| Start height | 145 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 1225 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 17.3 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
|
||
| Route photo |
| ||
From Ålesund drive road E39 to Sjøholt. Drive through Sjøholt centre, and turn right onto road 650, signed for "Geiranger" and "Stordal". From this junction drive 23.6 km and turn left where signed for "Overøye". Drive another 1.7 km and find parking on the left hand side of the road, at the start of a forest road just before a small bridge.
Start your hike by following a vague path from the upper end of the car park; aim for the power line mast a few metres above the road. The path will take you through the forest and up to the buildings at Jasvollsætra. Walk up past the buildings, on the right hand side, and then follow the path going right (north/north-east) into the valley, on the left side of the river. After approximately 1.8 km you get to the buildings at Botnastølen, and continue 4.0 km along the left side of the river, into the pass between Grytavasstinden and Øverøystolen. Turn left and head up Grytavasstinden's east slopes a little after you have passed the small lake Litlevatnet, aiming left of the large cliff band below the top 1186m. This hill is steep and strenuous, but not technically difficult. When you get up to top 1186m you have a good view of the rest of your route.
From point 1186m continue towards the small top between point 1186m and the summit, and pass this top on the left hand side. Then pass a narrow col before ascending slightly steeper terrain, requiring some easy scrambling. If you follow the vegetated sections out on the left you will not hit any problems. This will take you to a tiny top and a small col. Cross the col and climb the steep section above you, where you will have excellent hand holds. This is the crux of the hike, but is technically easy scrambling with moderate exposure on dry rock. When this section is passed you can walk the last few tens of metres to the summit, which is marked by a large cairn.
Descend by continuing across the summit and down into the col. Note that the small pinnacle at the other side of the col can be easily climbed. From the col turn left and descend on loose rock and gravel. and then turn left when you reach the bottom of the gully. You should now aim for the ridge connecting Grytavasstinden and Storbotnshornet, called Tverrbotnsegga, and will find some red paint in the upper section, marking the route from Grytalisætra. Turn left when you reach the ridge and find your best route down Tverrbotnen, and then follow your ascent route back through the valley to Jasvoll.
This hike was arranged by the Tourist Association, and coordinated and led by Hildegunn and Ruth. I had made a note of this hike in my diary many months earlier, and was very pleased to wake up to a gorgeous morning. The grand total of hikers going to Grytavasstinden this Sunday was 15, with a number of us first meeting at Stordal school, and then the whole team joined forces at Jasvoll a little before 10am. Most of the hikers were locals, which definitely surprised me, but it gave the benefit of having several sources of local information, and they were all more than happy to share interesting stories.
We stopped a few minutes at Botnastølen, chatting with a couple in one of the cabins and enjoying the sun and fine views of the mountains at the north end of the valley, before taking on the long valley walk into Jasvollbotnen and Grytavasstinden's east slopes. Along the way we passed a very nice water fall, and I took the opportunity to fill my water bottles. Then we stopped for a longer break, including filling up with a few sandwiches, before taking on the strenuous slopes up to Grytavasstinden's south-east shoulder. The team started to spread out a little in these slopes, with some of the less fit hikers trailing a little. But at point 1186m the ones heading the pack waited for the others, and together we had a good view of the rest of the route.
As we moved uphill from point 1186m the group started to spread out again, and I ended up in a group of four moving ahead a little quicker than the others. When we got up to the scrambling section, and realised the others were quite far behind, we decided to move on and continued up to the summit.
While waiting for the others I took the opportunity to take a lot of photos, on a very nice and sunny day. But after having taken photos and changed into dry shirt there were still no signs of the others, so we started to wonder if there had been problems for some of them to pass the scrambling section. It turned out they had decided to rope up in the short passage which is most exposed, and had spent a fair bit of time in doing so.
When everyone had made it to the summit we all enjoyed our lunches, and Jan and me took the opportunity to visit the small pinnacle west of the summit. After this we started the descent down the "normal" route, down towards Tverrbotnsegga, including crossing a field of snow. And yet again the group spread out considerably, so I decided to ask the organisers, i.e. Hildegunn and Ruth, if it was OK that Kjetil and me to leave the group at this point and returned back to the cars. Permission was granted, and Kjetil and me did the final 7+ km in just over two hours, including messing around a little below Jasvollsætra in order to find the path through the forest.