| Nystølvarden from
Varhovd (ski) Nystølvarden |
| Estimated net time | 1½-2 hours. | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No stable access to running water. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (February 2013). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at car park by trail head. | ||
| Start height | 1000 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 400 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 9.8 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Gol drive road 51 approximately 20 km north, in the direction of Fagernes. Turn right where signed for "Nystølfjellet hyttegrend", and drive 1.8 km. Pay toll (NOK 40 per 2013) in the unmanned toll booth and fork right. Drive another 3.2 km, making sure you fork left after 2.9 km, and park on the car park.
Start skiing by heading slightly downhill from the far end of the car park, and then turn left after 70 metres. Followed the prepared tracks, which are signed for Nystølvarden in all junctions. The summit is marked by a large cairn, and also hold a trigonometric point marker.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
I had been away to Warwick since Tuesday morning, and had arrived back at Golsfjellet a little after midnight this Saturday. Our plan was for the whole family to ski Nystølvarden, but at the end the boys wanted to play in the snow around the cabin, leaving only Elisabeth and me heading east towards Nystølvarden. For me it was a just, since I had caught some stomach problems in England, and had been rushing to the toilette all night, and was by now feeling very drained and out of power. Adding to this was a very sore head, which I hoped would be cured by some fresh air and some physical exercise.
When we set out from Varhovd the sky was very grey, but with no wind and a temperature just below freezing it was fine conditions for skiing. We followed the signed route out of the car park, but this route didn't have skiing tracks, so we soon cut across to the alternative route, which only gave us a small de-tour. From here it was easy skiing, more or less continuously uphill, all the way to the summit. To our surprise there were tens of other skiers out, with Nystølvarden as their target.
With very poor summit views because of the grey weather our summit stop was short, and we could start the long downhill skiing back down to the car. I assume this descent can have some challenging sections if the tracks are icy, but today the snow was close to perfect and we had an enjoyable ride back down.