The route up to and through Brekkedalen runs on fine forest road. The rest of the route, to the summit, from lake Stora Brekkevatnet, is in steep terrain with no path.
Part of the route between summit and lake Stora Brekkevatnet.
| Sauafjellet from
Hausdal Sauafjellet |
| Estimated net time | 3½-4 hours | ||
| Difficulty |
No difficulties. The route up to and through Brekkedalen runs on fine forest road. The rest of the route, to the summit, from lake Stora Brekkevatnet, is in steep terrain with no path. |
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| Drinking water | Running water across and along the forest road in many places. No water after leaving the forest road. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage at the start of the route and the final climb to the summit (September 2010). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at the large car park by trail head. | ||
| Start height | 93 metres. | ||
| Vertical metres | 490 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 11.0 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Bergen drive south to Nesttun, and then road E39 towards Os and Stavanger. Approximately 7.5 km from Nesttun, after having passed lake Kalandsvatnet on your right hand side, turn left where signed for "Hausdal". Drive this road to its end, where the bus turns, and proceed onto the large car park ahead of you. The distance from road E39 is 10.3 km. Park at this car park.
Walk to the end of the car park and turn right across the bridge. Continue another 2.1 km to where a forest road forks left, but ignore this fork and continue straight ahead. Continue another 1.1 km, a little past a cabin, to the top of the road. You first have a forest road forking off to the right. Continue another few metres and turn left onto a forest road. Follow this forest road north-east until you have lake Stora Brekkevatnet on your left hand side. Continue approximately another 250 metres, to where the lake starts to get widest. You will see a small section of boulder up to your right. Head through the forest up to the left side, as seen from below, of this boulder. Cross the boulder and head east and north-east where the terrain seems most suitable. There is no path here, and it is quite steep, but you soon get above the forest and the terrain gets more friendly. Continue in the same direction all the way to the summit, which is marked by a large cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
Having enjoyed the fine forest road from Hausdal up to Brekkedalen twice the last 10 days, I decided to explore the rest of the forest road by taking on Sauafjellet. I was well prepared, and had packed my hiking gear before going to work in the morning. Hence I was able to drive straight to Hausdal from work, and was on my way at 16:45 this Wednesday.
I kept a good pace up the forest road, and when I got to the top of the road I decided to continue east on the path leading down towards Samnangerfjorden. After approximately 350 metres I headed north-east, towards the summit. Crossing the river soon after leaving the path proved a bit tricky, but after some searching I found a place which was safe for crossing. From then on it was uphill through a fair amount of bush. But the bush didn't stretch far, and I could enjoy some easy scrambling up to the summit plateau. From here it was a bit of up and down before I got to the summit.
After taking my photos and drinking some water I started my descent, but this
time I decided to explore a route down the steep west side of the mountain. Just
as I had given up this option, because it looked too steep, I found a nice route
that would take me down to the forest road by lake Stora Brekkevatnet. From here
it was easy running all the way back to the car, meeting a good number of other
hikers.
Photos 01.09.2010