VUTTUDALSMANNEN - A STEAP CLIMB

On August 1, 2019, we went to check out Vuttudalsmannen. The mountain is 605 meters high and rises like a cone from Vuttudalen. We had passed this mountain on another trip and wanted to try to acsend it on another occasion. That occasion was today. We took my parents with us and followed E39 to Orkanger, up to Våvatnet on county road 714 before we turned left onto road 6432, the same road you drive on if you want to visit Omnfjellet. See history of that trip as well.

Blue dot: Parkering

Yellow dot: Litlevatnet and a break.

Red dot: The top.

Infosign by parking area.

After following the road for a while, there is a small pocket you can park in on the right side. Here you look straight up at Vuttudalsmannen. An info sign is placed with route descriptions. A long and a short route can be selected. But be aware that this is not a sloping mountain. If you look at the map, the elevations are very dense.

But we shy away from almost nothing and will always see how far we can get before we may have to return. My parents are lively and like to join us on some of our little adventures. This adventure would turn out to be a little more intense than we had imagined.

The trip starts on a dry gravel road up to a farm. It is very hot this day. We find a path and signs, but it goes upwards all the time. Not much flat aeras to catch your breathe. There are some flies around us that are quite annoying as we sweating, but it is probably something you just have to accept when you absolutely have to go out in the heat. It does not take long before we reach a lake, Litlevatnet. Here we cool our feet and soak our hair with cool water before we take a bite to eat. The road further up to the top is going to be steep, very steep. My parents choose to go down to the car again. I understand them all so well now that I have crawled up to the top of the mountain in hindsight. But me and Martin set off with good courage. The dog is fine. Runs free like a bird and is easy on the legs. I often wish on a trip that I was a dog with four paws that pushes nature's challenges without much difficulty.

Litlevatnet.

We end up in what is called Stormannsdalen. Here a river goes down and it is very fascinating to see how water and ice from the ice ages have dug out the mountain. But it is very steep. And it's hot. I moisten my hair where I can to cool down. Possibly we should have turned around as it is quite hot and it is steep. Again I am glad that my parents chose to turn around. But Martin and I have a stubbornness in us that says that once we have gotten over halfway and nothing is necessarily wrong with us or the dog, we try to reach our goal.

A small canyon. Steap, hot and intens.

I crawl in certain places. I feel an acute exhaustion. The combination of hot weather, the air is charged up to thunderstorms, too picky about drinking water and getting too little nutrition in me makes me almost collapse just before the top. I meet the famous wall. But now we are almost up and the steepest climb is behind us. So I manage to get up and lie down on a plank by the cairn. I`m resting here for some time before I am able to eat and drink. Martin and Khaleesi seems perferctly fine.

We start to stress a bit as we see a thunderstorm build up. We wish not be on top of a mountain if this weather system comes closer to us. So we decide not to take the same road back as there is a path down on the opposite side.

Here we have the road below us on the left. But this path is also very steep. Good footwear is really recommended. Several times I have to sit on my butt just to get a fea meters down. But little by little we get down and are very happy when we are in the car again.

The thunderstorm was not a big deal, but some huge amounts of water wash down on us when we drive back past Hardmoen cabin field. Really intense summer rain. We have defeated Vuttudalsmannen and it will be with this one visit.