From the village Valldal on road 63, north of Storfjorden, drive road 63 in the
direction of Åndalsnes (north).
- At 15.1 km you pass the gorge Gudbrandsjuvet.
- At 32.4 km you pass the highest point of the road, Alnesreset.
- At 34.9 km park on large car park by Trollstigen visitor centre, on the right
hand side of the road.
Start your hike by crossing the road, walk right (north) to the north end of the
small lake, cross the low fence and turn left onto the path that runs along the
small lake. Follow this path 200 metres along the small lake, and then uphill to
lake Bispevatnet at 1000m. Continue on the right (east) side of the lake, where
the path is soon replaced by boulder marked by small cairns.
When you approach the north end of Bispevatnet turn a little right and head up
to the saddle between Bispen and Kongen, and then across boulder to Kongen's
south-east ridge. The route up the ridge has a fairly visible path marked by
small cairns, until it narrows and the route becomes very obvious (just stay on
the ridge). When you get up to the top of the ridge at 1360m be aware of a
couple of metres with rock with much less friction, but there's no exposure so
no need to worry, but you're likely to have to use your hands. After this there
is a slightly narrow ledge with a touch of exposure which takes you around a
corner and to the bottom of the south-west couloir. The route up the couloir is
marked by sufficiently many red dots of paint to make navigation straight
forward.
Turn right at the top of the couloir and climb the crux of the hike, which isn't
difficult since there are good hand and foot holds. After this round another
corner and continue up another couloir, which is much shorter and has less
gravel, but you still need to show some care since a fall could have
considerable consequences. At the top of this couloir turn a little left and you
will soon get to the summit cairn, where you'll also find a small stone hut and
a summit registration book inside.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
22. July 2014
The plan for this Tuesday was that Elisabeth, Sigurd, Njål and I would hike
Bispen, and we left our cabin at Fjellsetra relatively early. At the Trollstigen
car park I was the last of us to leave the car, and as I started my walk I was
stopped by the man in the car next to ours. He asked me where I was heading
(Bispen), and then said that so was he but had heard that Kongen wasn't any more
difficult. He then explained that he had been to Bispen several times, and never
to Kongen, and that all information he had gathered the last couple of days
indicated that Kongen was a relatively easy hike. Unfortunately I couldn't help
him in any way in judging whether Kongen was "easy" or not, and started my hike
to catch up with the others.
As I walked along the small lake at Stigrøra I started to think about what the
man at the car park had said, and mentioned to Elisabeth that maybe we should
hike Kongen instead of Bispen. But we concluded the uncertainties were too
considerable and left it as a thought. But when we were overtaken by a hiker a
few minutes later, and he said that he was on his way to Kongen, and that Kongen
wasn't any more difficult than Bispen, we changed our plan to do Kongen. To be
safe I asked Sigurd to stay close to the hiker who had overtaken us, in order to
see where he would start his ascent, but in hindsight this seemed pretty
unnecessary since there is really only one route up Kongen unless you come from
the other side.
Both Kongen and Bispen had a number of hikers on this sunny and warm day, and
there were three other hikers at Kongen summit when we were there. One of them
was the man I spoke with at the car park, who had left his wife and dog further
down since they had concluded the terrain got too difficult for the dog.
The descent was much easier than I had expected from what I experienced when
ascending, and apart from Njål feeling a little uncomfortable down the couloir
we found it to be an easy and safe walk all the way down.
Photos 22.07.2014
Kongen trail head seen from above.
Along Bispevatnet towards Kongen.
Route up Kongen's south ridge.
Route up the couloir in Kongen's south-west slopes.