Skridulaupen trail head at Grotli.
For route to Skridulaupen leave road 258 where signed for Skridulaupbu.
Overview of upper part of route to Skridulaupen.
| Skridulaupen (1949 &
1962) from Grotli (ski) Skridulaupen-1949 Skridulaupen |
| Estimated net time | 5-6 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties, but be aware of the cornices towards north on Skridulaupen-1949. | ||
| Drinking water | No access to running water during winter. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route except a section mid-way and between the two tops (April 2014). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at trail head car park, or along the road. | ||
| Start height | 905 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 1305 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 19.4 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From the east junction of roads 15 and 258, by Grotli, drive 800 metres on road 258. Park on the large car park where winter ploughing of this road ends, or find space along the road.
Start skiing by following the (most likely) ski tracks on road 258. Turn left after 450 metres where signed for "Skridulaupbu". From here ski more or less directly south towards the north-east slopes of Skridulaupen-1949, finding the best balance between a direct route and avoiding having to ski up and down. You'll most likely find tracks from other skiers.
From Skridulaupen-1949's large summit cairn ski west down to the saddle, then up on the other side, across a couple of small bumps, before another climb. From here descend a few metres and up to the summit cairn at Skridulaupen's true summit.
Descend by skiing back down to the first immediate saddle (the small one next to the summit), and then gradually descend left down the large flank north-east of the summit. Continue north-east and try to find a route that will minimise the amount of ascents. You must expect to ascend a little during your descent, but most of this can be skied easily by utilising the speed from the descent before the small climbs. Towards the end of your skiing you will re-join your ascent route, which is then followed back to the car park.
This Easter Day ski-trip was organised by Trond and Jan Ove, with Jan Ove being the "local" having been to Skridulaupen once before. Kjetil drove up to Fjellsetra where I picked him up, and then we met Jan Ove and his brother-in-law Knut at Flo. We then met Trond, who had been skiing in the area for a couple of days, at the trail head car park at Grotli.
At trail head we briefly discussed our approach, and concluded that we would ski directly to the east end of top 1949m, up the relatively gentle slopes to the east summit, and then across to the main summit. I argued that skiing down from the main summit would be the best alternative for descent, but a couple of the guys were reluctant since the terrain looked very steep. I had checked the map the previous night and had found out that the decline was only 21° on average, and this convinced the sceptics to at least have a look at it when we eventually got that far. But I agreed with them, it really looked much steeper from a distance.
Skiing uphill in the relatively flat terrain was very easy, with hard snow and a bright sun. It was a little windy, but nothing to worry about. Hence we made OK progress and got up to 1550m more or less as one group. At this point we spotted a group of reindeers running west, a couple of hundred metres away from us, but soon realised that Trond's dog was chasing them less than 100 metres behind. Trond therefore shouted for the dog (Akira), who obeyed immediately! A little after this Jan Ove picked up the pace a little, and Trond and Kjetil decided it was time for a rest and some food before the climb up to 1949m. I also stopped for a sandwich, but by now the wind was quite chilling so quickly continued uphill. When I got up to around 1800m I saw Jan Ove coming back down, and then lost his skis as he did a sharp turn on the very uneven snow (caused by wind). One of his skis started sliding down the hill without anyone being able to stop it, and he had to descend at least 200m before he found his ski. While he descended to pick up his ski I continued to top 1949, where I stopped for a minute or two. But it was very windy so I decided to proceed to the highest point in order to get there and change into dry clothes.
When I got close to top 1962m I saw the others at top 1949m, and soon later one skier started towards 1962m. I assumed this was Jan Ove and that the others had decided to head back down from 1949m. But when Jan Ove joined me at the summit a little later he told me that the others were on their way as well. We therefore found shelter down in the west side and waited for the others, who all turned up one after the other. We then waited for all to have had their food and drink, and change into warmer clothes, before we started the descent.
When we got to the "steep" section down from Skridulaupen everyone soon realised that this hill wasn't as steep as it had looked from below and was definitely more tempting than skiing back across top 1949m. Hence we started our descent, which proved to be most excellent. We had hard snow in the upper several hundred vertical metres, then a shorter section where we would risk breaking through a kind of soft crust, and then finally slightly wet snow in the lower part. And with a bright sun and much less wind than at the summit the descent was, at least for me, very enjoyable 8.5 km. The only small exception was the two short stretches of ascent where I didn't have sufficient pace to get all the way up before the next descent.
Back at the cars we were all happy smiles, after a memorable day to some high mountains. Kjetil had climbed his two highest mountains ever, and amongst the others at least I had never before skied a higher mountain.