Norwegian Mountains

Geitfjellet, 406m

Fylke/Kommune : Hordaland/Lindås
Maps : 1216-III Stanghelle (Statens Kartverk, Norge 1:50 000)
Primary factor : 43m
Hiked : Mar 2005
See also : Rundesteinen
See also : Gråsida
See also : Almeskilet
Geitfjellet seen from Verafjellet

Geitfjellet seen from Verafjellet

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Introduction

This page was supposed to present Rundesteinen (424m), but because of a navigational blunder, the ski-trip ended on Geitfjellet (404/406m). Translated into English, Geitfjellet means Goat mountain.

This mountain is not easy to spot, unless you are standing on a mountain north on Osterøy. The mountain is located just above Vike (just east of Eikefettunnelen) by Romarheimsfjorden. You have the mountain up to your left when you pass Vike on highway E39 towards Førde. The obvious routes towards this mountain is via Aurdalen or Vetle-Aurdal valleys. A path may even run directly up from Vike.

The views from the top are surprisingly good, as you see a lot of mountains all around. As they all are higher mountains, your view is limited by the mountain region around Romarheimsfjorden, but it is nevertheless nice views.

The forest dominates this mountain. Only a limited area is found above the tree-line. As such, the mountain is best enjoyed in summer, when you can hike wherever you feel like. The route description below describes a winter route that does work, but hardly can said to be enjoyable.

Post-note Apr 2005: The Rundesteinen page has now been released.

Primary factor:

Geitfjellet (M711: 404m, Ø.K: 406m) has a primary factor of 43m towards the higher Rundesteinen (424m) The saddle is found between the two tops. Ref. Økonomisk Kartverk (5m contours), you cross the 365 contours on the high route, but not 360m. The saddle height has been interpolated to 363m. My GPS did not show a height above 403m, which indicates to me that 406m is perhaps too high.

Trail descriptions:

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.

Vetle-Aurdal - Geitfjellet (winter)

Difficulty : Class 2
Exposure : None
Distance : 5,2Km to the top
Time : Approx. 2-3 hours to the top
Starting Elev.: 10m
Vertical Gain : Approx. 450m (total)

Map of the area
Map of the area
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Detailed map
Detailed map
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Access

From Bergen, follow highway E39 northbound (Førde/Ålesund). Cross Nordhordlandsbrua bridge and pay toll on the north side (NOK 45,- for passenger cars per March 2005). From the toll station, follow highway E39 for additional 36,5Km. The Vetle-Aurdal (Urdal) tunnel is 300m now ahead of you. Locate a forest road going up to your left. Find parking alongside the forest road, or wherever you're not blocking for any traffic.

The route

The first part of the route is easy. Follow the forest road approx. 2,5Km. When the first meadow appear on your left, leave the forest road. Ski across the meadow in a southwest direction until you see a valley on your right. Ski up on the ridge to the left of the valley. The drop down to the valley gets higher as you go, but it's easy to cross when you've reached the top of the ridge. It's a 700m ski-trip from the bottom of the pass to the top of Geitfjellet, further southwest.

Return your ascent route, or find a route towards Rundesteinen. The obvious descent route from Rundesteinen would be southbound to lake Kvamsvatnet, and head back the forest road from there.

Trip report Mar 06 2005

What an incredibe irritating ski-trip this turned out to be. After the nice ski-trip to Ilefjellet and Singelstadfjellet on Tysnes the day before, I decided to take a quick trip to the Romarheimsfjorden region and ski up to Rundesteinen (424m) I reckoned a 2 hours ski-trip and 2 hours in car (both ways) would be sufficient, and then I would take the dog to Mt. Ulriken afterwards. I started fairly early, and was ready to go from Vetle-Aurdal 09:30AM.

It was very convenient to follow the forest road upwards. It was sort of a long detour in order to reach this top, and I had always expected to hike up Aurdalen and come up from the west. That route is however (most likely) a summer route, so here I was. For some reason, I chose to leave the forest road rather early, and traverse Geitafjellet diagonally. I was under the impression that Geitafjellet was easy forest terrain, which is indeed true in summer.

But now, the snow was deep and the forest extremely cumbersome. The only time I saw the skis on the way up when I had to unlock them from bushes below the snow. Parts of the forest did not allow for switchbacks, so some hills had to be skied head-on. Some swearing occured the times when I lost the grip, slided backwards and landed on my back in 40-50cm deep powder snow.

Near the bottom of a narrow valley, I chose to ski the ridge on the east side, even if the top was on the other side of the valley. As I ascended up the ridge, the drop down to the valley got more and more intimidating. I chose a route which allowed me to keep an on the valley, should an opportunity for descent present itself. It didn't, and when I finally reached the top of the ridge, the drop down to the valley looked hilarious. I decided to have an extra look around before I headed down on the north side, trying to find a place to cross. This extra look paid off, and I found a route that I even could ski down. Quite unbelievable.

The map and the GPS was in my backpack. I had no use for them, as it was just a matter of skiing upwards until I was on the top. 11:30AM, I was on top of Geitfjellet. I pulled the GPS from the backpack, and looked at the GPS map. The map showed that I was on a top, 4x4m high, where x represents the GPS cursor blocking the middle digit. I took for granted that the digit '2' was hiding below the cursor, and not '0'. Another top was now in the bag. I shot a quick round of pictures before heading back. I was already well behind schedule.

I didn't discover this blunder until I downloaded my GPS tracks onto the computer, back home. So, instead of documenting an independent Hordaland mountain, I'm writing a trip report about a hump, with a primary factor of 43m. Oh well, once in a while, these things are bound to happen, I guess.

Skiing back to the car took precisely 1 hour. Back home, a dog with extremely sorry eyes was now waiting for his walk, and by 15:00PM, we were standing on top of Mt. Ulriken. Despite of the big snowfall a few days ago, he could walk from the very bottom, as dozens of eager feet had stomped a perfect trail up the mountain. Just after the snowfall, I was heading up the mountain with no trail, carrying the dog all the way up. He made it down all by himself. Imagine a 23cm high dog in 30-40cm fresh powder snow. When I tell you he was swimming down Mt. Ulriken, I am not exaggarating.

Pictures from the Mar 06 2005 hike

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.

1. The Vetle-Aurdal trailhead (116KB) 2. On the forest road (143KB) 3. Cumbersome forest (340KB) 4. On the wrong side of a pass (354KB) 5. Approaching top of Geitfjellet (242KB) 6. South view from Geitfjellet (574KB) 7. North view from Geitfjellet (397KB) 8. Husdalsfjellet seen from Geitfjellet (202KB) 9. Hogafjellet seen from Geitfjellet (179KB) 10. Top of Geitfjellet (166KB) 11. Heading home, looking down to the pass (226KB) 12. Back on the forest road, looking to the forest (171KB) 13. Back on the forest road (302KB) 14. Passing Almeskilet on the way from Geitfjellet (200KB)

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Pictures from other hikes:

1. Geitfjellet seen from above 2. Geitfjellet seen from Hiklettane (110KB) 3. Geitfjellet seen from Snoyo (196KB) 4. South view from Storlifjellet (497KB) 5. South view from Raunefjellet (284KB)

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