Tverrbytthornet (24.07.2013)
Written by hmsv1 (Hannah Vickers)
| Start point | Leirvassbu |
|---|---|
| Characteristic | Hillwalk |
| Map |
|
| Ascents | Tverrbytthornet (2,102m) | 24.07.2013 |
|---|---|---|
| Tverrbytthornet V0 (2,030m) | 24.07.2013 | |
| Vestre Tverrbytthornet (2,035m) | 24.07.2013 |
I left Spiterstulen in fresh morning air at around 8.30am feeling somewhat excited and somewhat concerned. I was supposed to be meeting up with mortenh (Morten Helgesen) and linntherese (Linn Therese) for a trip from Leirvassbu. I was looking forward to meeting the faces behind the peakbook trip reports I had read, but as it always is with new people I was nervous about my norwegian being a bit atrocious. That would be embarassing. Aside from that my only other concern was that I was not fit enought to keep up with them…….
Anyway, we eventually met up at the side of the road just before the barrier where you have to pay to drive up the road to Leirvassbu and we took my hire car up there. It wasn’t the smoothest drive up and I was glad it wasn’t my own car having to suffer from the many bumps and holes along the way. The car park was pretty full by the time we reached there, maybe just before or around 10am. And it was pretty warm, even though Leirvassbu was at over 1400m. Tverrbytthornet was one of the peaks which Linn Therese hadn’t visited yet, and it was not a long walk to get there, so this was today’s objective. And I must admit that I wasn’t really at all fussed over where we went since it was my first ever visit to this corner of Jotunheimen. Any trip would have been more than satisfactory with their company!
Well, it only took some minutes of walking alongside Leirvatnet before I realised that wearing trousers was a big mistake. And carrying two jackets was way too much clothing. Fortunately, a bathing stop by Panna after ca. 2km gave me the perfect opportunity to switch to shorts (I didn’t actually bathe, I observed bathing). I learned an important lesson here: to always have swimwear with me on a summer hike. Just in case.
From the bathing stop Tverrbytthornet was more or less directly to the north of us and we headed straight up from the southern side of the mountain. Linn Therese was convinced that we’d make it to the top in about ½ hour. I actually would not have been surprised if both Morten and Linn Therese sprinted up the 1km and 650m of height in only ½ hour, but I think that maybe this was a bit optimistic for my level of fitness. There was a stop or two along the way and some fun opportunities for scrambling, mixed in with some loose rocks here and there. The views were fantastic though. Plenty of interesting-looking mountains to become mesmerized by. Kyrkja was one of them that I couldn’t stop taking photos of.
It wasn’t all that long before we’d reached the ridge leading up to the top, and soon I was standing on my third 2000-er. It had clouded over a bit by then, but I think it was still an amazing view in every direction. I think I was most impressed by Visbreatinden and Kyrkja which were on the other side of Visdalen. Seemed like a lot of reward for not too much physical effort :-) It wasn’t so much fun to share lunch with a million flies though, so that was my only complaint.
After a satisfactory summit break, we walked along the ridge in a westerly direction towards the next top which was a fun experience. It was quite narrow in places but not too airy, and Morten and Linn Therese moved together on a rope. The descent from Vestre Tverrbytthornet was slightly more interesting and we soon discovered that an abseil would be needed for a more direct way down. It was OK to go down and around that part though, even if the rocks were a bit loose in places.
Time flew by quicker than we realised and by the time we had reached the point in-between Vestre Tverrbytthornet and the next top along the traverse, it was already 4pm! Linn Therese was a little tired (and had dinner on her mind) and Morten had a potential trip to Store Skagastølstinden starting early the next morning, so we decided to take a shortcut down to Visdalen again and return to Leirvassbu. It had been an amusing and interesting trip, even if we’d not finished the whole traverse. I think there will be many more visits to Jotunheimen to get another opportunity!
More pictures....
Big thanks to both Morten and Linn Therese for the trip!
User comments
Thanks
Written by mortenh 12.08.2013 21:51for your enjoyable tour report and especially all your nice pictures. And as already communicated, it was great meeting you and you excellent company for us two. No stress and very patient.