Start of path to Synshorn and Heimre Fagerdalshøe.
Route towards Heimre Fagerdalshøe from the small lake.
Route to Mefjellet from lake Fagerdalstjernet.| Synshorn, Heimre
Fagerdalshøe & Mefjellet from Bygdin Synshorn Heimre Fagerdalshøe Mefjellet |
| Estimated net time | 3-4 hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties. |
| Drinking water | Plenty of streams along most of the route. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (July 2009). |
| Parking | Room for many cars at the car park at Bygdin Fjellhotel. Fee is NOK 40 per day (July 2009) if not resident. |
| Start height | 1060 metres |
| Vertical metres | 780 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 9.2 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
Start of path to Synshorn and Heimre Fagerdalshøe.
Route towards Heimre Fagerdalshøe from the small lake.
Route to Mefjellet from lake Fagerdalstjernet. |
Two potential access routes for this hike are
[a]
From road E6 drive to Otta and turn west towards Stryn and Lom on road 15. After 36.0 km turn left onto road 51, where signed for "Fagernes". Drive across Valdresflya to the hotel at Bygdin, 71.8 km from road 15.
[b]
From Fagernes drive north on road 51 to the hotel at Bygdin, 49.4 km from Fagernes.
Park by the hotel at Bygdin (NOK 40 per 2009 if you're not a resident at the hotel). Start your hike at the north-west corner of the hotel, and proceed north-west along the road next to lake Bygdin. After you have crossed the bridge you cross another road and continue along the path on the other side of the road. This path is marked with red "T". At around 1160 metres the path forks, and you should stay right, aiming for the stream coming down from Fagerdalen valley. The path is now heading directly north, and when you get to the stream that comes down from Synshorn you turn right and follow the path up to point 1440. From here you have a good view down to the hotel. Continue around 400 metres north to get to Synshorn summit.
From Synshorn continue along the ridge, in a north-west direction, towards Heimre Fagerdalshøe. This part of the route isn't marked and there is no path. But the terrain is easy to hike, and the direction is obvious; just stay centre on the wide ridge. After you pass a lake on your right hand side you have around 700 metres of easy ascent left to the summit of Heimre Fagerdalshøe, which is marked by a cairn.
From Heimre Fagerdalshøe walk a few metres past the summit, and then turn sharp left. Descend in a south-west direction, and after you have passed a small stream turn left and head south down towards a small hill. Cross this hill and head for the east end of the small lake at the bottom of the valley. Walk along the east shore of the lake and then head directly south, finding your best route up to Mefjellet. Again, there is no path. Make sure you pass the lower of the two tops of Mefjellet on its right hand side (west). Mefjellet is marked by a cairn.
To get back down to the hotel you continue a few metres south from Mefjellet summit, before turning sharp left and finding the best route, in easy terrain, back down towards the path fork where you turned right when ascending Synshorn. When you hit this path you follow your ascent route back to the hotel.
This Friday was the first day of the summer holidays and we had left home late morning. After having checked in at Bygdin Fjellhotel I decided to pay a visit to some of the local mountains. I had nothing planned but realising that Synshorn, Heimre Fagerdalshøe and Mefjellet would make a nice round trip and not including any driving, this seemed to be just the right thing.
I met a number of hikers when ascending Synshorn, but from here on there were none else around. At Synshorn I enjoyed the nice views in the cloudy weather, before picking up speed across to Heimre Fagerdalshøe. From here I wasn't sure how to proceed to make the hike as easy as possible, but after having descended a few metres I found an easy route down towards the valley. When I realised I had the rest of the route well under control I called Elisabeth and asked if she would like a bit of fresh air, and maybe meet me at Mefjellet. She agreed that this was a good idea, which made me make sure I kept a reasonable pace to make sure she didn't have to wait for me.
I got to Mefjellet quite a while before Elisabeth, and in order to not get cold in the slightly grey and windy conditions I found a bit of shelter a few metres below the summit, but making sure I still had a good view across lake Bygdin and the mountains surrounding the lake. After 15 or 20 minutes I was joined by Elisabeth, and after a few minutes more of enjoying the views we started the descent back to the hotel, where the boys were waiting and eager to go to Beitostølen to get some pizza.