A Circular Walk on Vargfjordtinden near Ballangen (19.06.2015)

We turned off the main E6 road at Djupdaisasen and took the road towards Kjeldebotn. Just before Kvitfors we turned left on an unmetalled road and drove along it for about one kilometre.
The start of the walk was not easy to find, it was marked by small red plastic tubes hanging in the trees. The footpath led off through birch woods on a carpet of mosses and grasses and the path was quite indistinct with very occasional red markers on trees. However after about an hour the broad ridge leading up to Lanvegtuva could be seen ahead through the trees and there was a river on our right. The way now steepened, the footpath disappeared and eventually we broke clear from the woods and onto the open hillside. We continued upwards skirting snow patches where we could but then crossing others. Finally we arrived at the summit of Langvegtuva, with superb views and glorious weather. We continued down and up over three intermediate summits before making the final push through knee deep snow to Vargfjordtinden summit. This was my first mountaineering trip to Norway so I could not name many summits but certainly Stetind, Stortinden and Hafjelltuva were clearly visible. We decided to descend northwards to Vargfjellet but the ridge steepened and with soft deep snow and cornices we were concerned about slipping. So we returned to the summit and went down the broad east ridge. At first it was snow but soon we were back on grass,heathers and juniper bushes. The ridge led back into the woods but now on the other side of the river and eventually we emerged onto the road for a short walk to the car.
A superb hillwalking day with no technical difficulty. Approx 7 hours with breaks, perhaps 8 km.
My companions were Jon Massey and Ian Archer.