Knutshøe 1517 m asl
Do you remember last year’s trip to Besseggen in the Jotunheimen mountains? One of the most amazing views on that day was a lonely mountain on the other side of Gjende Lake. It’s called Knutshøe, and I promised myself that one day I would go there. Well, that day has just come.
The summit is 1517 m above sea level. and there are basically only two roads to it: from the southeast and from the northwest. Slopes in other directions are too steep to lead there any other trails. So, you can go up to the top on one side, go down on the other and come back to the starting point through the valley, along the river. This was also my assumption for this trip. The entire route is over 12 km long and, as I have found out for myself, it is incredibly spectacular.
I arrived in Jotunheimen around eight in the morning. It was going to be a pleasant day, although it was quite cold on the beginning. I changed my shoes, put on a sweatshirt and jacket, took a few photos from a small bay by the main road, where I decided to leave the car and set off on the trail. The route is not marked in any special way, but the path is clearly well-trodden. Soon I noticed few groups of hikers heading towards Knutshøe. Most of them started from the next bay on the same road where I had left my car. A few hours later, when I on my way back, there was so many cars that it was hardly to count them.
I got to the foot of the mountain. The trail splitted at this point. One path went up, the other headed towards the Leirungsdalen valley. I headed up the slope and started climbing. It wasn’t difficult to climb the ridge, with maybe one exception. Somewhere along the way, I came across a place where all four limbs must be used to go up about three to five meters. Afterwaeds it was much easier.
The views from the route are breathtaking. Knutshøe’s characteristic is that you can admire the scenery at almost every stage. The nearby Besseggen is more popular, but honestly, only half of the route is accompanied by great scenery. Part of the hike is a rocky desert without any interesting views. But here, almost all the time I could not get over my delight.
A few days earlier, I was trying to figure out if I would be able to fly a drone on the route. Regulations prohibit such extravagance in national parks, and Jotunheimen is home to one of Norway’s national parks. However, while browsing the maps on the Internet, I discovered that the border of the park starts somewhere halfway to the Knutshøe peak. So, I had the opportunity to fly around a bit and shoot a few shots before I reached the restricted area.
At this stage of the route, you can already see the turquoise color of the waters of Gjende Lake on the north and the rising Besseggen Ridge. From the south, however, there was a much better view of the Leirungsdalen valley and the Leirungsåe river meandering at its bottom. This river splits into three currents just below the peak of Knutshøe and feeds the small lake Øvre Leirungen, before it flows in spectacular cascades to Gjende Lake. The view from above on this spectacle is amazing.
Just below the summit is the last steep climb. Just like at the beginning of the route, here is an exposed section, where I had to use my hands to go up. A moment later I was there. I will not elaborate on the views, because those on the entire route are amazing. I took a few photos and started descending the north (actually north-west) ridge. The descent is not complicated, but you should be careful, because it is easy to slip on wet rocks.
I reached the tree line and shortly thereafter I stand at bottom of the valley. I continued walking along the Leirungsåe River until it turned south. I passed the crossing of the trails I had passed a few hours earlier and made my way to the car left in the bay. I was tired but happy with the walk. I was wondering what to do with the second half of the day. I wanted to spend the night in a tent somewhere in the area and in the morning, I could make some short hike before return home. Now I had a long time until sunset and I was considering the various options available. But I will write about what happened next in the next post.
