Start of path to Molden.| Molden from
Tverbergstølen Molden |
| Estimated net time | 3-3½ hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties. |
| Drinking water | No access to running water. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (June 2009). |
| Parking | Room for many cars at trail head. |
| Start height | 502 metres |
| Vertical metres | 640 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 8.4 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
Start of path to Molden. |
Two alternative access routes to the trail head.
[a]
From the intersection of roads 5 and 55 a few hundred metres east of Sogndal follow road 55 for 17.4 km towards Lom. Turn right onto a gravel road where signed for "Mollandsmarki". Continue 2.3 km along this road until you get to a car park on your left hand side. Park here.
[b]
If driving road 55 across Sognefjellet drive to Gaupne. After having crossed the bridge drive 9.7 km and turn left onto a gravel road where signed for "Mollandsmarki". Continue 2.3 km along this road until you get to a car park on your left hand side. Park here.
Start walking by following the road from the car park another 150 metres. Turn left onto a path, and follow this path east and north-east. Turn 90° left and head directly north, still on good path, when you get to the old wooden building at Svarthiller. After a couple of hundred metres the path turns north-east and takes you all the way to the summit. Note that the summit is not located where the big cairn stands, but 200 metres to the east, where there is a building and a couple of masts.
The return is best done by reversing the ascent route.
This Saturday was day #3 of our trip with the 13 year old boys for the football tournament in Sogndal. I had been staying the night at Vassbakken above Skjolden and had to drive to Hafslo for their first match of the day, but based on the recommendation I got at Nuken on Thursday night I had planned to visit Molden on my way to Hafslo. I therefore had a quick breakfast before hitting the road, wanting to have a good margin time wise for the first match, since I wasn't sure about the navigation with respect to both driving and hiking. It turned out the trail head was easy to find, so I started my hike well ahead of schedule.
The weather was, for the third day in a row, fantastic, and I had a very enjoyable hike up the moderately steep hills. When I got close to the cairn close to the summit I got a surprise; I had started my hike at 07:05, but there were plenty of people already at the summit. And judging by their age they would not be professional mountain runners, so they had either started dead early or they had stayed the night in the building at the summit (if that's possible). I heard them speaking German, and to me it seemed to be with a German accent (as opposed to somewhere else in the DACH-region).
After I had signed the registration book by the summit I headed across to the summit. When I stopped to take my summit photos I got surrounded by hundreds of flies, so it wasn't tempting to extend the summit stay to more than the time it took me to get the photo session done. After this I ran all the way back to the car, and arrived Hafslo well ahead of the boys.