|
Dustingen seen from south(No Javascript) |
Store Dustingen towers high and mighty above Dale. The summit is one of the true landmarks between Voss and the ocean, and can be identified from a long distance. Not thanks to the ugly building and antennas on top, but because of the distinct humps that form the mountain.
While Kvamsnovi is a lower hump west of Dustingen, Flatafjellet form together with Morkafjellet a feature-less plateau east of Dustingen. All three summits can be reaced on a round-trip hike. While Dustingen and Flatafjellet are easy to reach from the Fosse powerplant, Kvamsnovi is more demanding, and should be attracting to hikers who like find their own way in a steep and rough landscape.
Despite the fairly low primary factor, the views from Dustingen are quite good. In addition to premium view towards Bergsdalen mountains and the southern Stølsheimen mountains, characteristic mountains near Voss can easily be identifed. Another "bonus" is a perfect view towards the Rosendal alps.
While the map makers claim the name of the mountain is "Store Dustingen" (the name resembles "Big fool mountain" in Norwegian), the locals insist the mountain is called "Dystingen". This name gives association to words like "challenge" and "endeavour". Perhaps this was their view on the mountain - the ones that had to go up and keep an eye on the sheep. Who knows. The origin of the name is unknown to me.
Primary factor:
Dustingen (999m) has a primary factor of 269m towards the higher Blåsåta (1029m). The saddle is found in Gufsekrossskardet pass between Morkafjellet and Såta. Ref. the M711 map (20m contours), you cross the 740m contours on the high route, but not 720m. The saddle height has been interpolated to 730m.
Flatafjellet (916m) has a primary factor of 126m towards the higher Dustingen (999m). The saddle is found in Fosseskardet pass, between the two mountains. Ref. the M711 map (20m contours), you cross the 800m contours on the high route, but not 780m. The saddle height has been interpolated to 790m.
Kvamsnovi (852m) has a primary factor of 104m towards the higher Dustingen (999m). The saddle is found between the two mountains. Ref. Økonomisk Kartverk (5m contours), you cross the 750m contours on the high route, but not 745m. The saddle height has been interpolated to 748m. Note that on this 5m contour map, Kvamsnovi's height is defined to be 855,5m. If this is correct, then the primary factor is a few meters higher.
Notes: Class ratings are in reference to YDS. Click here for more information.
The trails described below are not necessarily the *easiest* trails to this mountain.
|
Bergsdalen road - Kvamsnovi - Dustingen - Fosse round-trip (summer/autumn)
|
|
From Bergen, follow highway E16 towards Oslo. From the E16/highway 7 junction (roundabout) at Trengereid, continue approx. 26,3Km to Dale. Turn right towards Bergsdalen and continue approx. 2,3Km up the narrow Bergsdalen road. The route begins near a stream in a sharp right turn, a bit before the tunnel. You can find parking on a turnout 100m down the road.
Kvamsnovi
The goal is simple, really. Follow the stream all the way up to the pass between Kvamsnovi and Store Dustingen, and sort out the obstacles along the way. We suggest you stay to the left of the stream in the beginning, and follow the spruce forest upwards. Don't get too far away from the stream. When you reach a distinct cliff in the middle of the stream, cross the stream and continue upwards on the other side. Above this cliff, you start moving out of the forest and the rest of the route is quite obvious. When you get hump 845m in view, turn left and set course up towards Kvamsnovi.
The route up the forest isn't difficult, but routefinding is required. Parts of this route are steep, in terms of strain, not exposure.
Dustingen
From Kvamsnovi, you see three potential routes towards Dustingen. A northern route, up along the ridge, seems very doable. A direct route, head on, is more challenging. A third alternative is to descend a bit down into Dustingdalen, find a route up to a distinct boulderfield and follow ledges up the mountain. We suggest you hit the mountain head on.
Descend Kvamsnovi towards point 845m. Find a way to leave this ridge, descend down to the small lake between the mountains and pass the lake on the north side. Ahead, you should see a very distinct couloir defined by high cliffs on either side. At first, head southeast, then turn left and position yourself at the lower end of this couloir. Either follow the couloir, which involves exposed scrambling - or attempt a parallel route further left. As we followed the couloir, we cannot state the difficulty of the route to the left.
The couloir looks ridiculously easy from distance. Based on the pictures below, the reader will have problems understanding that this was indeed a piece of nasty terrain. The start of the couloir is easy, but suddenly the terrain comes straight at you. Slabs on the left will force you right, and you will have to climb up above the slabs. This involves commitment, as it is much easier going up than going down. The grip is defined by how far you can run your fingers into the (loose) grass. Keep a very low centre of gravity, and don't fall back down. We have reason to believe there is an easier route nearby, although the terrain in general is a bit steep.
Once above this obstacle, seek left towards a distinct ledge that runs up to your right. You have several options here, although the terrain is perhaps even steeper than below. No more grass though. You have solid rock to hold on to, although the mountain is still "coming towards you". Instead of following the ledge up to the right, maintain a direct route towards the top. You should arrive the plateau with a cairn a bit to your right. This cairn probably indicates a route related to the ledge that you could have followed instead of climbing straight up. Once on the plateau, head south and ascend Dustingen summit from the west.
The Dustingen summit is defined by a building, antennas, a large cairn, a small heli-deck, and ... more. A very feature-rich summit indeed, and on 1st place on my "Ugliest summit in Hordaland" list - should I ever create one.
Descent
The descent is described in a bit more detail in the Fosse-Dustingen trail description, but in general, follow sticks down the mountain. The sticks are eventually replaced by red tape on trees and bushes. Just above the Fosse powerplant, make sure you find the trail down the lower forest, saving you from a cumbersome bushwar. Note that at approx. 880m, the stick route forks. One route runs down to your right. Go left and head towards the stream that runs down Fossegjelet (between Dustingen and Flatafjellet).
|
Trip report Oct 16 2004Finding a good route up to Kvamsnovi had been on my priority list for quite some time. Only back in July 2004, I tried to reach this mountain via Dustingdalen (see trip report below). Additionaly, I was very curious if it was possible to reach Dustingen from this side. From the distant views I've had so far, Dustingen's west side looked a bit unfriendly. This Saturday, my friend Torbjørn was available for a hike, but due to time constraints, the destination would have to be within reasonable proximity. I "sold him" the Kvamsnovi project, and by early morning, we were on our way from Bergen.The weather was holding up OK. A grey day, but no rain. I figured that if Dustingen's west side was as steep as I anticipated, dry rock would be our friend. But first of all, we would have to find a way up to Kvamsnovi. Since Dustingdalen valley was already put in the climbing category, I had set my eyes on the neighbour (unnamed) valley. Torbjørn suggested an approach from the north, but I wanted the hike to be a short as possible. I had decided not to carry Troll (the dog) on this hike, and leave him in the car. I figured the hike would be long enough, even with a higher start from the south side. I just loved this concept. We knew nothing about the route ahead. Would we get up? Would it be difficult? Would be airy? I had brought a rope just in case we got tangled up in something nasty, but the hike up to Kvamsnovi turned out to be quite easy. Steep and strenuous - yes, but nowhere near difficult. A class 2 (YDS) route all the way up to Kvamsnovi. We had left the trailhead at 09:00AM, and reached Kvamsnovi 10:15AM. There was light rain in the air, and quite windy. The wind jackets had to come on. We studied the Dustingen west side and felt we had several potential routes. We chose to take a direct approach, involving a couloir that would take us up to the middle level. The lower level involved a lot of steep slabs, and this corridor looked very tempting. At the bottom in this couloir, I felt that the mountain would play a trick on us, and I warned Torbjørn that it would be a bit steeper than it seemed from below. This turned out to be true. I took the lead, and halfway up the couloir I had to decide if I wanted to turn around. Taking it further would be a commitment, and getting down would be spooky. I wouldn't fall off any mountain, but a fall it would be for certain. I decided to commit for one more move, only to discover that there was almost no handholds. I dug my fingers into the grass as best I could, and dragged myself one level up. I paused in the couloir while I watched Torbjørn follow. I felt a strong relief once we were above this part of the mountain. I am not sure whether this ascent qualifies as class 3 or 4 (YDS). It is normally the handholds that drives the classification, and they were pretty bad. If this was a class 3 route, then it was one of the spookier class 3 routes I have ever climbed. The rest of the scramble still involved steep terrain, but there weren't any more couloirs or gullies that defined any boundaries. We reached Dustingen summit 11:30PM, quite content that we had found a memorable route to the top. With my new Silva Windwatch, we measured a 16 mps peak on top before we headed down the normal route towards Fosse. From Fosse, we followed the road to the tunnel. We chose to go outside the tunnel, which was quite fun. We had to pass between a peculiar piece of rock and the tunnel. We were back at the car 13:00PM, 4 hours after we left it. Troll wasn't overwhelmingly happy to see us again, perhaps a bit sore about being left out. Once back in Bergen, I decided to make things right between me and the dog, and invited him for a merry walk up to Mt. Ulriken. Considering he's well past his most excellent years, I have started carrying him the first 10 minutes of the hike. Normally, when I put the backpack down, he shoots out and lets every dog in Bergen know who owns this mountain. Not so today. I put the backpack down, and he pretended to be invisible. The following "dialogue" took place;
Pictures from the Oct 16 2004 hike
Move cursor to read notes, and click on the images to see full version.
No Javascript: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
|
Notes: Class ratings are in reference to YDS. Click here for more information.
The trails described below are not necessarily the *easiest* trails to this mountain.
|
Kvamsnovi - via Dustingdalen (summer)
|
|
Avoid the Dustingdalen couloir if you want a nice hike to Kvamsnovi. Here are a few facts from the short trip I had:
The couloir can be extremely slippery. No water was running when I hiked it in July 04, but this may be because it's the dry season. With three exceptions I managed to follow the boulder up to 500m elevation, where I turned around. In the three exceptions, I had to find a bypass in the grassy slopes above the couloir. This was indeed more cumbersome than walking on slippery boulder. At 500m, the couloir got narrow and no bypass was possible. The couloir was blocked and I found no ways of climbing up in a safe manner. Even without a dog on the back I would have turned around. From a climbing point of view - yes you can get up here, but the slippery rock makes climbing far from trivial. There is good potential for getting hurt if you fall back down. The pictures below does not really show the real problems at the turnaround point, and you may get fooled by the actual height of these rocks (they are higher than you may think).
Move cursor to read notes, and click on the images to see full version.
Some of the thumbnails may have been cropped to fit the format.
No Javascript:
Notes: Class ratings are in reference to YDS. Click here for more information.
The trails described below are not necessarily the *easiest* trails to this mountain.
|
Fosse - Dustingen (+ Flatafjellet) (summer/autumn)
|
|
From Bergen, follow highway E16 towards Oslo. From the E16/highway 7 junction (roundabout) at Trengereid, continue approx. 26,3Km to Dale. Turn right towards Bergsdalen and continue approx. 5,5Km up the narrow Bergsdalen road. Park by the Fosse powerplant on the left hand side of the road.
Walk up along the fence on the powerplant's left hand side. Cross a traversing forest path. On the other side, look for an iron pole that rises from the ground. Just behind this pole, locate the path to Dustingen.
The path will fade here and there, but the route is marked with red tape on trees and bushes. Above the treeline, sticks mark the direction all the way to the summit.
If you want to include Morkafjellet on your hike, then cross in Fosseskardet pass and walk directly up to the Flatafjellet high point. Note that there is a trailsign ("Dystingen") a bit before you reach the powerplant. Explore or ignore.
|
Trip report, Sep 19 2001:My friends Gro and Dag were co-hikers on this trip. As I hiked this mountain in May 2000, I remembered it to qualify as a good afternoon hike. We drove from Bergen 15:30PM, and arrived Fosse 16:40PM, after having to stop for some roadwork. We began the hike 16:45PM, and reached the top 18:00PM. After a nice break on top, we headed down 18:30PM and were back at the car 19:20PM. Normal tempo, no rush. My feet are living a life on their own, so early on the trail, Gro insisted to take the lead and set the pace. I lose balance on reduced speed, so I switchbacked on the side. Everytime I seemed to get in front, Gro quickly corrected my speed. She would be a great guide, if she put her mind to it. She has the required authority. Near the top, the blockade was lifted, and I could "goat" around without any restrictions. I was looking foward to get pictures of nearby mountains, but it turned out to be too late for good photos (as seen below). The views are however grand, so the pictures didn't matter all that much. You clearly see the tower of Ulriken from Dustingen. Also good views towards Lønahorgi on Voss and Tveitakvitingen.
Pictures from the Sep 19 2001 hike:
No Javascript: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
|
No Javascript:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35
Other hordaland mountains
Other Vaksdal K. mountains
westcoastpeaks.com
