| Lønahorgi from Bavallen
(ski) Lønahorgi |
| Estimated net time | 4-5 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | Not likely to be any drinking water during winter, except from the small restaurants run by the ski-centre. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (March 2010). | ||
| Parking | Several car parks around trail head, at the ski-centre. | ||
| Start height | 355 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 1145 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 17.1 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Bergen drive road E16 east to Voss. Drive through Voss centre, and turn left when you get to the roads E16/13 junction. From here continue 1.6 km on road E16, and turn left when signed for "Bavallen". Turn left again 100 metres later, and turn right after another 700 metres. Follow the zigzags uphill for another 2.6 km until you get to the first of the ski-centre's car park. If this car park is full drive up to the next level, and repeat as applicable.
From the car park locate the relatively flat piste going into the forest, left of the slopes coming down to the right of the lower car park. This is the family piste, and you can follow this all the way up to 640 metres, where you will find a number of buildings and a restaurant. Choose one of the two piste that goes up to the right (one goes west and the other north; the northern gives the shortest route) and ski up to the lift that will take skiers towards the south ridge of Lønahorgi. At the top of this lift you will see the metal poles that marks the service road that goes all the way to the summit. Either follow these poles, or find your own route (which will not run far off the service road anyway).
The descent is best done by reversing the ascent route, but once back down to the area of the ski-slopes there are many possible routes back down to the car park.
I was due to go back home on the 14:55 flight from Bergen this Friday, but since the weather had improved considerably over-night I decided to leave work early and change my flight to the 20:45 flight. After getting in to work a little early and putting in a few hours I jumped into the car and drove to Voss. The conditions were very promising, with a bright sun and only a few light clouds.
Finding the trail head by the ski-centre was no problem, and after getting changed into hiking gear I was on my way. The sun made the climb up the hill, along the ski-slopes, a warm experience, and I very much enjoyed every moment of it. While ascending I could see some skiers who were dropped off from a helicopter up on the south ridge of Lønahorgi, probably looking for some advanced descent routes.
By the time I reached the ridge more clouds were moving in, and when I got above the last ski-lift all the sun was gone and the visibility was starting to get poor. Some negative thoughts started to creep in, but I managed to put them to the side. One factor that lifted my spirits was the fact that the route along the ridge was marked by large metal poles. I assume there is some kind of service road for the big mast at the summit, and that they need to be able to get to the mast also during winter. These poles eventually became critical for my progress to the summit, since the visibility was down to a few tens of metres.
Being at the summit was a fairly windy experience, and by now it had started to snow a little. And visibility was still very poor. The latter fact made me keep my skins on for the first part of the descent, since it was almost impossible to see the terrain ahead of you, and keeping the skins on would help me to keep the speed down to an acceptable level. When I got back to the northern-most ski-lift I took my skins off, and by now the visibility had improved a little. From here on it was enjoyable skiing back down to the car, following the slightly icy slopes of the ski-centre.