Norwegian Mountains

Ulvanosa & Geitdalstind hike, Dec 28 2002

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Trip report Dec 28 2002

I had talked Petter Bjørstad into coming along for a hike to Ulvanosa. Not is it only a beautiful mountain, but also Hordaland's 3rd highest, in terms of primary factor. I had already visited Ulvanosa in 2001, but managed to skip Geitadalstind, the neighbour mountain. I had been thinking about Geitadalstind ever since I discovered it was a ranked mountain. Petter brought his son, PJ (age 13) along for the hike. Troll was confined to the house. I had no ambition of carrying the dog to the Ulvanosa summit for the second time.

The weather forecast promised an OK day. Perhaps with some rays of sunshine. When we parked at the trailhead 08:15AM, it was either raining or snowing. We couldn't tell. It was dead dark. When we began the hike 08:30AM, there was sufficient daylight. And whatever came down from above, wasn't there anymore. We were well equipped, carrying crampons, axes and skis. It was highly unclear if we would have skiing conditions. At Veslanosa it was clear that the skis could be left right there. There was little snow on the mountain, and whatever snow was left, was hard or icy. In addition, the trail was quite icy in the beginning. At this time, the crampons and axe came into good use.

On my last hike to Ulvanosa, I never considered hiking up to Geitadalstind. The snow on the mountain was hard, and I had no gear. A slide would be mean and ugly. I was also carrying the dog, resulting in awkward balance. In addition, it looked downright scary. But this time, I was eager to scale this peak, and looked forward to take on the steep north ridge leading up to the summit. Arriving the ridge, I was surprised on how steep and narrow the ridge really was. I had no particular difficulties, but crampons on icy rock is always a puzzling concept. As I had no ambitions to fall on either side, I scrambled the ridge with the mandatory caution. I was overwhelmed when I reached the summit. The views, the steep east face, the ridge to the secondary peak, and the awesome ridgeline to Ulvanosa. I was very happy to be up there. We never rushed anything on the way up. Including some breaks, technical adjustments and photo sessions, we arrived the summit approx. 12:10PM, As Geitadalstind has no height given on the map, we did some GPS measurements and agreed on that the summit had to be approx. 1210m.

We moved over to the unnamed south peak and gazed down at the steep drop to the ridge leading to Ulvanosa. It was quickly decided that a detour was called for. We descended a bit towards the west before we sat the course towards the basin between Geitadalstind and Ulvanosa. Traversing the south side of Geitadalstind called for some caution, as it was a long way down to the basin. We arrived Ulvanosa summit at 13:15PM and took time to admire the wild Geitadalstind south face. Petter concurred in that this peak hardly typical for Hordaland Fylke. We signed the trail register where the last entry was Oct 10. Given the visit rate, we concluded that we would probably be the last visitors in 2002. After a short lunch break, we left the summit 13:30PM and maintained a high route along Geitadalstind's west side. This line took us directly to our original route and we were quicly back on Veslanosa, where we collected the skis. Along the descent route, we enjoyed the sight of large flocks of grouse in winter dress. We reached the trailhead at 16:00PM, 2,5 hours after we left Ulvanosa summit and just before the darkness. The days don't get much shorter, this time of the year. A 7,5 hour long hike had come to the end. It had been a long, but highly rewarding day.

Pictures from the Dec 28 2002 hike:

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Some of the thumbnails may have been cropped to fit the format.
Pictures are presented in the order they were taken.

Fagerdalsskardet pass between Ulvanosa and Englafjell (229KB) On the way to Geitadalstind (147KB) Petter enjoying crampons (210KB) Rosendal alps (222KB) Petter and Geitadalstind (128KB) Petter and PJ on the way to Geitadalstind (152KB) On the Geitadalstind north ridge (131KB) Petter on Geitadalstind north ridge (296KB) Ulvanosa high point (189KB) View from Geitadalstind summit (174KB) PJ on Geitadalstind summit (165KB) Petter on Geitadalstind summit (160KB) The unnamed sub-peak on Geitadalstind (233KB) View down to Uskedalen (198KB) Geitadalstind seen from the sub-peak (268KB) The saddle between Ulvanosa and Geitadalstind (282KB) Ulvanosa high point and the basin (164KB) Traversing Geitadalstind south side (316KB) Geitadalstind seen from below (167KB) Geitadalstind seen from Ulvanosa slopes (168KB) Geitadalstind seen from Ulvanosa high point (185KB) Englafjell seen from Ulvanosa (349KB) South/South-east view from Ulvanosa (313KB) Petter and PJ on Ulvanosa (187KB) Lower Uskedalen valley (182KB) Geitadalstind seen from Veslanosa (299KB) The trailhead seen from the forest trail (155KB)


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