Harstadfjellet trail head at Solsida.
| Harstadfjellet from
Solsida Harstadfjellet |
| Estimated net time | 3-4 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | You will find running water from the stream up to 150m. Above this it gets slightly more cumbersome to get to the stream. There are also a few streams higher up. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (October 2015). | ||
| Parking | Room for close to ten cars at trail head. | ||
| Start height | 98 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 925 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 8.2 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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Start measuring from the round about east of Molde centre where roads E39 and 662 intersect (this is approximately 0.8 km along E39 from the ferry port). Drive E39 east in the direction of Trondheim:
- At 18.6 km turn left and continue on road E39 towards Trondheim.
- At 35.3 km you cross the bridge crossing the river in Batnfjordsøra.
- At 35.5 km turn left towards Åndal and Blakstad, and then turn right towards Blakstad.
- At 35.7 km turn left onto unsigned road.
- At 36.4 km turn right onto "Storhågvegen".
- At 36.8 km park on the right hand side of the road, at the small car park, where a private road goes uphill.
Start your hike by following the road 400 metres uphill, to a water supply building. Continue another 600 metres and turn left onto a wet path. Follow this path across some boggy terrain, through a small forest, and onto Harstadfjellet's north-east slopes. Stay on this path all the way up to a little above 800m, where the terrain gets a little steeper and the path splits into many less visible paths. The best option is probably to head more uphill than forward, and from under 900m you will get onto the long summit ridge (it isn't narrow at all!). Follow the ridge, first past the large cairns and registration book, and then continue another 100 metres to a much smaller cairn, which is the highest point.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
The plan for this Saturday was that Elisabeth and I would go to Molde to watch Njål participate in a handball tournament. But with only two teams in the boys-16 group Spjelkavik decided to withdraw the team and instead go to Elverum to play a boys-16 match and watch the men's team in Champions League! This meant Elisabeth decided to stay home but I wanted to take advantage of the accommodation I had organised (with Amund) and got an early ferry on Saturday morning. Amund and his son Fredrik picked me up in Molde and we headed directly to Batnfjordsøra and the Harstadfjellet trail head a little above the centre.
We had fantastic weather this Saturday, and even at the summit it was T-shirt conditions thanks to the lack of wind. After a total of 45 minutes at the summit we headed back down and were back at Amund's place around 15:00. The most sensible thing to do then was to enjoy a cold drink out on Amund's balcony, and in general just relax. A couple of hours later Kai came along, with lobster and dried cod, and him and Amund produced an excellent meal.