Besseggen - 2 august 2013

[ØysteinT]

Postet denne på et annet (engelskspråkelig) forum, men tenkte jeg kunne bare kopiere den inn hit også

 

So, it is summertime, we have been having mostly perfect weather for all of July, so it was time I set off on one of my hiking goals - walking the Besseggen trail. This is one of the "big three" touristy trails/hiking destinations. The other two are Prekestolen (Preacher's Culprit, located on the side of Lysefjorden near Stavanger, which is a squareish outcrop with a 1000 meter drop straight down), and Gaustatoppen (where I've been, a summit which gives you the best view in southern Norway, allowing you to see a sixth of Norway on a good day).

 

Located in the Jotunheim area in central Norway, the trail starts at Gjendesheim cabin on the east side of the Gjende lake, and ends at the Gjendebu cabin on the west side, which is a two day trek. But most people just take it to Memurubu cabin, at the midpoint of the lake. Most people take the ferry out to Memurubu and walk the trail back to Gjendesheim as it means you are not dependant on arriving in time for the ferry to go back. 

 

I left home at 6am and arrive at Gjendesheim just before 10am. The weather wasn't the best, with some low cloud cover over the area. Besseggen is on the right hand side of the lake, nearest to the camera, and you can see the top is covered with clouds. But I'd driven almost 4 hours and was not about to turn back.

 

I was lucky and got a seat on the next boat (this is one of the most popular hiking trails in Norway, and this summer the good weather has meant they've had an 20% increase in traffic)

 

Arriving at Memurubu, looking up the hillside where I'm going.

 

 

As I mentioned, this is a very popular trail. I get winded easily when going uphill, so I was taking it calmly, and letting the other people pass me. About a hundred people came along on the ferry. The trail is pretty well made, with large stones mounted as steps. 

 

 

Further up, looking down onto lake Gjende, with it's emerald blue waters. You can clearly see other trails on the nearest mountain, both going up along the ridge, and in through the valley to it's right. 

 

 

Looking north towards Surtningssue, the 7th highest peak in Norway (2368 meters). 

 

 

The view south towards lake Gjende and you can see the low skies lying as a lid on top of everything.

 

 

Lots of rubble and stones this high up, you can see Besseggen to the right, the edge with light and dark on each side going up into the clouds. 

 

 

Progress once I got past the big climb up (from 985meters to about 1300 meters) was ok, and looking back the way I came you can see the contrast between the larger lake below, with it's green-blue color, and the dark blue of the higher mountain lakes. 

 

 

Getting closer to the actual Besseggen (which means "the edge of the Bess", where Bess is the name of the lake next to it, Bessvatnet), the clouds had lifted and you can see the challenge ahead, going up the edge of the mountain from 1350 to 1850 meters. 

 

 

From the bottom of the edge

 

 

Alas, that was as far as I made it. Being exhausted, with a bad balance (big and heavy), and a bit afraid of heights, I chickened out from going up the edge. Hiking alone I had no one to help push me up the hill, and the thought of freezing up halfway to the top wasn't very comforting, so in the end I decided to take the wimpy route, and walk along the Bessvatn, the lake to the right of the peak. As I started along that route, I was joined by two other people who also couldn't walk the edge up. 

 

View of the mountain from my side of the lake as we made our way around it

 

 

The path along the lake is about 7km long, and another 3km until you meet the path from the mountain going down to Gjendesheim, and you can't even see the end of the lake from here (but you can see the local swarm of mosquitos)

 

 

A couple of hours later, after reaching the end of the mountain, I managed to snap this picture of the view east towards Sikkilsdalen. 

 

 

At this point, my phone ran out of power (I had been running it with GPS, which drains it pretty quickly), so I have no more pictures from the last 3 km of the path, but it was slow going with my left knee acting up (it can get hurty after a long hike with lots of up and down on rocks), but in the end we reached the Memurubu cabin.

 

The total length of the hike was 20km, and I spent just under 9 hours on it. And then I had another 3.5 hours drive before I got home, very exhausted.

 

The route I ended up taking:

 

It was a disappointment that I didn't manage to get up Besseggen, maybe if I do it another time with some friends I will be able to do it. It supposedly looks worse than it is going up (going down is another matter, eek). 

 

Cheers

Øystein