Soleimsgrønnuten, Smørnut & Hollestadnuten

The Sunny weather ended just the same day, when I planned to go on another trip. I wished to come back to Etne and Litedalen and try to get to mountains I missed last week. Clouds on the sky and pouring rain were not able to stop me. I was on the place on Saturday morning. I parked beside the road follows to the Hårlansvatnet lake, where starts another road leading to the mountains. As I could see on the map and what I could see from the opposite slope week earlier, this road came out on top with electricity lines just between the peaks of Soleimsgrønnuten and Smørnut.

My plan was to enter first on Soleimsgrønnuten, then at Smørnuten and if I will be strong enough, I could keep the direction and climb also on Hollestadnuten. And then from this third peak, go down and follow the ordinary asphalt road which lead me back to the car.

I have not seen any signs that would inform about existing mountain trail here. I could be expected this after my last week experiences. I passed the crumbling buildings of a farm and talked while to sitting in the tractor old farmer. He ensured me that I am going in the right diection. So, I moved on. When I came across the intersection, I went to the right, the more well-maintained road. I walked away from the place I thought I should like to climb and after a while the road ended. I had to go back to the crossroad and this time I choose left one. Steep switchback road led me to the top. The last part of this ran under the power lines. On the left, I saw a Smørnut peak and on the right, there was Soleimsgrønnuten. I suspected that there are not any marked paths so I awaited the way across country. I assumed which way is the best to go. The ground was partly covered by snow. The grass and the ground underneath was frozen, so I could walk relatively easily. From time to time I found out the animal track. I went through a thicket, walked next to dwarf trees or climb up on the rocks. At one point, I realized that I lost one of my gloves. It had to fall out of my pocket while walking. Probably it hooked some branches and fall out. I didn’t want to go back and look for my loss. I decided to go ahead. The higher I entered the wind became stronger. When I got there already, it was blowing pretty much and I saw some clouds approaching from the west.

The peak was not marked in any way. There was no even so characteristic in other places, mound of stones. I stated I am on the place, because I was already on the highest hill in the area. There was a fabulous view from this place. The panorama showed long lake of Stordalsvatnet on the north and steep mountains raised from water. Along the shore meandered ribbon of E134 road. I could even see water of Åkrafjorden above mountains on the north.

And then it began to snow. This was not a storm, rather single snowflakes rushed by wind but it seems that things got serious. I remembered the news on TV or read on the internet about reckless tourists, going alone in the mountains and their bodies found after. The weather was getting worse, I was alone in an unknown area, away from the trail and only person who knew where I was, it’s been the old man on a tractor. Well, I had with me cellphone, so I could call for help. Besides I wasn’t in Tatra mountains. This hills here were much lower so I was more optimistic. And besides, I had plans to achieve three peaks, so return at this point was out of the question.

Okay, I exaggerated a bit now. I considered the possibility of early evacuation, if the weather deteriorated even more. However, I felt unsatisfied so far and I wanted to climb up at one more peak. At least one. If it became too difficult, I could always go back. Descent from Soleimsgrønnuten was a challenge. Western slope was too steep and I had to find some suitable place to go down. Gusty wind didn’t facilitate my task. But in the end, I got to the high voltage lines and went further in the direction to Smørnut. Wind had no intention to surrendering but at least snowing stopped.

The road to Smørnut was quite difficult. The wind was blowing from the south so it didn’t trouble me so much. But still, I missed the path under my feet and I had to climb up on several small hills to get there. Fortunately, there was a stone tower on the top of Smørnut, so I had my target in sight. When I reach it, I didn’t stay long at the top. There was no box with a notebook, I still didn’t see any patch or trail signs. I made some pictures only and decided that marching further to next mountain is the best solution. Hollestadnuten was in sight and it seems to be even closer than the distance between Soleimsgrønnuten and Smørnut. In addition, the return means the march into the wind. Continuing westward seems to be obvious. There will be long way to the car after but at least it will be on flat terrain, I thought.

One more time I had to find convenient place to descent. It took less time than before and soon I was in the valley between the mountains. I could went straight ahead to the Hollestadnuten. Reaching the top was no problem. At the place, I finally found out the path leads down and box with notebook inside. I signed up, took some pictures and went down.

I wondered where the path will lead me. Last week I checked two routes to get to the Hollestadnuten and both led me nowhere. I descended and at one point the path expectorated me out on a wide road and journey continued further. Somewhere along the way it began to rain. With one of the many corners I founded a gate that stopped me last week on the opposite side. As before, it was chained with a padlock. But now, I saw that the gate included small gate inside, which appeared to be open. I went through it and I found myself on already known area.

I went down the Bergeveien road to the road 36 and then turned left toward the Litedalensvatnet Lake. The rain had stopped soon but it still was cloudy. I was tired and I felt pain in my feet. I founded the Hårlansveien road and place where I left my car. Finally, I could go home and rest.

Download file: 20161112_073955.gpx

This entry was originally posted 2016-11-16 on https://kraina-trolli.pl.