More mountains!!

Yesterday was the annual 4 or 7 peaks walk - the choice is yours and depends on how fit you are - organised by Bergens Turlag (walkers association) http://www.bergen-turlag.no/7-fjellsturen/. The fine weather held, so walking was dry, which makes such a difference because otherwise you are scrabbling over mossy granite and across boggy areas which can be extremely slippery!

Did we take part - well not exactly!  The map below shows the route taken for the 7-peaks route. If you only do the 4-peaks you start at Ulriken and finish at Sandviksfjellet.  The 7-peaks route is 35km long and takes around 7 hours and the 4-peaks route is about 20km and takes 4 hours or so.



The 7 peaks to climb up (and down!) are Lyderhorn, Damsgårdsfjellet. Løvstakken, Ulriken, Rundemannen, Fløyfjellet and Sandviksfjellet. The idea of 7 peaks is inspired by Rome, which is built over 7 mountains. Unfortunately, the peaks around Bergen are not particularly obvious, as they are all part of the same mountain area, and Lyderhorn is difficult to see from the centre of Bergen as it is hidden by Damsgårdsfjellet!! The walk was first organised in 1948.

Why did we not take part - well it isn't that much fun when you are in a line of 8,000 or so people walking up and down mountains. They either go too fast or too slow!

So instead, since the weather was good, we walked from home, up to Tarlebø rservoir, which is behind the reservoir on the right hand side of the above map, and around the top from Rundemannen to Ulriken. Guess it was around 10 miles - took us 6 hours door to door, including breaks and taking the cable car down Ulriken!!

It was lovely, but quite cold, with a northerly wind catching you off guard when out in the open.  Snow is still lying in some places too. The view here is across to Folgefonna glacier, which rises above Hardanger Fjord. Our walk was a great deal quieter than the 7-peaks one, and we could really enjoy the scenery and not feel pressured by lots of people walking up behind (and probably past) us.

The terrain is quite tough - you certainly need ecent hiking boots or shoes. Also, thank goodness for the cairns, which show the route! It is easy to get lost up there as the paths run over rock and bog, and tend to move with the weather! The cairns are from the 1930's - before then I don't think people had much leisure time for fjell walking, so there probably weren't many people up here! 



Some people thought it was warm enough for shorts!!!