A view of Bletoppen from the west at the campsite on the first day
Introduction
This hike happened a long time ago to the extent that I don’t remember dates and days, I wanted to go to Norway, previously I had only been walking with my dad in North Wales. This time I wanted to go further afield. After being lent a 1:50000 map of a portion of Southern Norway, we decided we should go there. It had the attraction of having Gaustatoppen at ~1800m. We wanted to go to a place where we would be within a days driving of Denmark. This place looked like two hours drive west from Oslo and so it was chosen.
The drive up from Denmark took us through pretty parts of Sweden with the ground being largely forested with small fjords indenting the country further north. We arrived into Moss around midday having been driving since 5.00am with rests. The weather was fantastic with Cobalt blue skies. After crossing the Oslo fjord, dad decided to pop in to the local tourist office where we spent ages and again in Kongsberg. This meant that we didn’t get to the camp site until 6.00pm. We got lost on the way though, a new road had been built to Rjukan meaning the main road on our map wasn’t the sign-posted way any more.
Apart from my new tent bought back in December, the only other new piece of equipment I had was a rucksack and some new boots bought in 1994. I still wore ‘everyday’ clothes and a basic waterproof.
Day 1
We set off at around 9.00am hoping to set off earlier. We had 1000m to climb to the summit. The good news was the climb to 800m was on a Forest track, the bad news was the trees from then on and the hot weather made it very tough. It was tough going through the woods and once above the trees the going was easier but still tough. Deep heather and shrubs existed above the tree line with vast boulder fields above 1100m. We didn’t get to the summit until 3.00pm. The wind was static and apart from flies, all was silent.
From the Plateau looking west to Gaustatoppen
We moved on across the plateaux using a DNT path, by now dad was complaining about blisters. We kept moving until 6.00pm where we had found a place next to a lake. We noticed quite quickly that possible camping opportunities were very limited to a narrow altitude band next to lakes. There had been a drought for over a month here now. Only isolated patches of snow fed any streams. For me though the setting was remote given my experience. The plateaux was undulating at 1100m +- 100m and the lumps looked a lot higher than they really were. The good weather continued for most of the time we were here.
Day 2
It was my intention to climb any summit that was on the map. We did just that and although the summits rose up about 150 – 200m from the plateaux, they felt rewarding once reached. The going was tough over the boulder slopes and the steep bands of rock not exactly obvious on the map hampered progress further. They did provide interest though. The rock had fissures in them and in many of them we found melting snow which could only be seen at close hand.
A typical view of the plateau
After climbing our peaks, not within the Dyer criteria, we joined the main path to go to a DNT hut called Eriksbu. We spotted a dear walking within close range of us on the way.
Day 3
Our plan was to walk back now towards Bletoppen and then when close to our way down, we would stop and camp. We didn’t set the tent up until it was nearly dusk. The idea being that exposure to UV should be kept to a minimum. With my previous tent, the strength of the flysheet was reduced that of tissue paper over the years of use it received. The wind picked up and curiously the clouds above at ~ 2000m were going eastwards while at our camp at 1200m the wind was blowing the other way. While having dinner, the clouds built up very quickly and dad got worried because of our altitude and the threat of Lightning. We subsequently packed up and quickly headed down to the valley.
Day 4
Today was a rest day, we drove to Rjukan with the intention of climbing Gausta and surrounding peaks. The day was spent chiefly in the Tourist Office surprisingly enough. We drove on up to 1100m on a road to the east of Gausta and camped close to the edge of a big lake there.
The head of Tinnsjo |
At the head of Tinnsjo lake looking south |
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