Vellesæterhornet trail head in Langesæterdalen.
Stream crossing and path junction in Langesæterdalen.
Route towards Vellesæterhornet in Langesæterdalen.
Route up Vellesæterhornet from Langesæterdalen.
| Vellesæterhornet from
Langesæterdalen Vellesæterhornet |
| Estimated net time | 5-6 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No technical difficulties, but the hill from 900m and all the way to the summit is steep and there is considerable danger of small stones coming down from hikers above. | ||
| Drinking water | Several sources of running water up to where you cross the stream at 840m. Above this you're only likely to find water if there's still snow. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage into Langesæterdalen and in the upper part of the route (July 2014). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars around trail head. | ||
| Start height | 375 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 1180 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 10.3 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
|
||
| Route photo |
| ||
Start measuring from the 3-way junction on road 60 above (west of) Stranda centre, where road 60 goes towards Sykkylven, Stranda centre and Hellesylt. Drive towards Hellesylt and Stryn.
- At 27.0 km you pass the exit to Hellesylt.
- At 31.5 km turn right towards Ørsta on road 655.
- At 55.1 km turn right towards "Urkedalen", Immediately after a small bridge.
- At 59.0 km park at the top of the road.
Start your hike by following the gravel road down towards a bridge, cross the bridge and continue up to the T-junction. From here continue straight ahead onto a path and turn left after a few metres. Follow this path 1.7 km to where the path crosses the river on a bridge. In the path junction above the bridge, on the other side of the river, continue straight ahead (don't turn right) in the direction of "Vellesterhytta". This path will take you up to the old buildings at Langesætra, where the path gets less obvious for a short stretch. But by following some cairns you will soon pick up the path again, which you should follow north-east up to 840m. Note that there are two paths, neither of them very wide and well defined, running almost parallel. Ideally you should follow the left (north/west) one, but if you end up on the right one just make sure you cut across to the left one before you get to the top of the hill (you will know you're on the "wrong" path if you see red paint) above the river coming down into the valley.
When you get up to the flat section at 840m, with the nice water fall down on your left, find a suitable place to cross the river. Under normal conditions you should find a suitable crossing without walking to far along the flat section of the river. After having crossed the river walk back to a little above the water fall and head north-west up the scree/gravel section left of a wide couloir which is likely to be filled with snow well into the summer. Above the scree/gravel section gradually turn a little right (north) and continue straight up to the summit of Vellesæterhornet, which is marked by a proper cairn, and there's also an old trigonometric point marker on the ground.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
After our failed attempt at Vellesæterhornet last year, Kjetil and I were very determined to make it to the summit this Saturday. And as opposed to last year we had done our homework and identified the various route options to this supposedly slightly difficult mountain. When we got into Langesæterdalen we got a good view of our planned ascent route, and it looked frighteningly steep. But as we got a little up the steep slope above 900m we realised that this wasn't that steep, and only technical difficulties higher up would potentially cause problems. Since these difficulties never materialised we made it to the summit without any problems.
At the summit we enjoyed spectacular views in all directions, and concluded that Vellesæterhornet definitely deserves many more visits than it seems to receive.
The descent was just as straight forward as the ascent, with the exception of a few small stones flying down the hill side from our slightly less than careful foot steps. In the scree/gravel section below 1000m, where it's very difficult not to set stones in motion, we decided to descend with considerable horisontal distance between us, and had a good overview of the slope below us (i.e. knowing that there were no hikers below us), and simply let stones "fly all over the place".
Back down at Urke we stopped by the local shop, which had closed but still allowed us to buy a post-hike Coke for the drive back to Fjellsetra and Sykkylven.