Vinbekkhorn 779m asl
This time I wanted to avoid a longer car ride and drove around Kongsberg and Notodden. Somewhere between these two cities there is a quite large parking lot, a toilet and, most importantly, couple of hiking trails leading to the surrounding hills. The mountains are not high here and the routes are not too demanding. But in the first week of May, there was still a lot of snow, which made the hike much more difficult. One, that the path lying underneath it becomes invisible, and two, that when walking on such, not often deep snow, the legs sometimes sink to the knees, sometimes up to the waist. Pulling your legs out of the snowdrifts and taking the next steps is then very burdensome.
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I decided to wander in such conditions anyway, and my goal was the Vinnbekhorn peak, measuring 779m above sea level. The beginning seemed quite promising, there was not much snow in the lower parts, on the path itself there was only a few spots. Provisionally, at the very beginning of the route, I put on gaiters because there is nothing more irritating than snow in the shoes. And it was a good decision, because soon after the path was completely lost under white drifts.
I started my hike in the early morning, so the snow was frozen after the night temperatures and hard enough to support my weight in most cases. However, sometimes the leg sank deep into the snowdrifts.
The trail was marked with blue marks, visible on stones or trees along the path. Sometimes it was hard to see the next marker, especially when the path was completely covered with snow. I was saved then by footprints that someone had left a day, two or three earlier. I finally reached the cross in the trails at Lake Bjønntjønn. There it turned out that my guide was heading towards Fjellstullfjellet, in a different direction than I was heading. I had to turn east and from then on rely solely on the blue marks on the trees. I reached another lake, frozen and covered by snow. Soon after, I was on the top. Panorama from Vinnbekhorn is quite a nice piece of Norway, with the characteristic Jonsknuten peak in the east and a large antenna sticking out of this mountain.
After a few minutes spent with the camera, I returned on the trail. I came to the aforementioned cross in the trails and decided to follow the tracks in the snow. It was getting warmer, which had an effect on the structure of the snow. The more I wandered on it, the more often I fell into drifts. Initially, I was going to go to Fjellstulfjellet and climb the highest peak of the massif, Rukubergene, but in this situation I was no longer drawn to it. So I decided to take the path that turns south just before the massif, which will lead me back to the parking lot.
So I did. Before the trail began to lead down, it led me to one more hill, where the paths crossed again. There was a pretty good view from there. After that, it was just downhill. Quite pleasant, anyway, until finally I was back in the parking lot and I could think about going home.
