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The route up Hausdalsgullbotnen was the only "normal" route to S. Gullfjellstoppen I hadn't done. I had ascended "Sydpolen" (as the mountain is also known as) from the Gullfjellet plateau, via Purkedalsgjelet and the north ridge, the southeast and south ridges from Brekkedalen and the northwest ridge from Redningshytten. Arild Bratheim had suggested this route back in 2003. He had also put some cairns in place, where he felt this was necessary.
In April, one can hike in daylight until 21:00PM, so there was plenty of time to do this route in the afternoon. Torbjørn Frøystein wanted to come along for the walk, and by 16:40PM, we were on our way from the Haugsdal parking. We wondered what kind of weather we would get. It had been raining as we drove into Haugsdalen, but it was not raining when we started to walk. It was a very interesting mix of blue sky, bright and dark clouds, sunshine and rain showers.
We followed the Brekkedalen road and then exited onto the forest road leading to Hausdalsåsen (the Toro south ridge). As this road turned southwest, we followed a branch northbound until road end. A forest trail started where the forest road ended, and we followed this trail to a river crossing a bit higher up. From the river crossing, we followed small cairns upwards, although the direction was quite obvious.
We put the gaiters on just after 500m elevation. The snow was soft and we tried to follow rock where possible. A convenient ridge took us up to the plateau near lake 803m, and we could for the most part walk on rock all the way. We crossed the drain from lake 803m on a snow bridge which was enjoying the last days of the season before heading up the NW ridge.
This ridge has a point halfway up the ridge where the summer trail runs on the right hand side (near the drop towards Hausdalsgullbotnen). In winter, it is best to head straight up the snow. Last time I was here, this snowfield resembled a near-vertical 6-7m wall, and this was the reason I had brought along the ice-axe. But there was little snow on the mountain, and the hike up was indeed trivial. We reached the summit 18:45PM and enjoyed good views all around. It was certainly a bit more chilly on top, but we seemed to stay clear of the nearby rainshowers.
We headed down the south ridge, mainly on the ass on the upper part. On my last visit, a week ago, I could easily slide 70m on foot, but the snow was too soft this time. Still, we got fairly good "butt-speed" down the slopes until hard rock killed the big fun. Instead of following the ridge as it bended towards the Brekkedalen road, we headed southbound on a direct course and joined the road near the point we left it. We arrived the trailhead 20:05PM and concluded that it had been the most excellent afternoon walk.
Proper route description will appear in the new Gullfjellet pages, about to be released soon.
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