Start of route to Hellandshornet.| Hellandshornet from
Helland, return same way Hellandshornet |
| Estimated net time | 2½-3 hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties, but fairly steep through the forest. |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route. |
| Parking | Room for several cars at trail-head. |
| Start height | 27 metres |
| Vertical metres | 870 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 6.3 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
Start of route to Hellandshornet. |
Drive road 659 towards Brattvåg. After having driven through the two Remefjell tunnels, continue for another 1.1 km and turn right (signed for "Hallandhamn"). Continue for 6.7 km and turn right. There is a small wooden sign by the main road; "Hellandshornet". Drive to the end of the gravel road and park the car.
Locate the trail head just east of the small car park, and walk into the forest on a good path. The path through the forest is steep, but without any difficulties. When you get above the forest continue on the clearly visible path. If bringing children on this hike there might be a good idea to keep hold of the child's hand at the one point where the path is relatively close to the edge of the north wall of Hellandshornet. The path is gradually turning more and more south bound until one reaches the boulder in the upper 200 vertical metres of Hellandshornet. This area offers comfortable walking and will bring you up to the small top plateau; just follow the relatively big cairns built in the boulder area. There is a stone cabin at the top plateau and a large cairn. However, the summit can be found 120 metres further south/south-east, marked by some small stones.
The descent can be done back down the same way as the ascent, or one can continue towards south and descend down Austerdalen and Ringstaddalen. If descending through the ascent route some care should be shown in the steep area through the forest.
| In June 2004 Stig Gribbestad did ten return trips to Hellandshornet
continuously, following this route. He started at midnight and was
finished after 19:10 hours, having done more than 8500 vertical metres!!
His initial plan was to do twelve trips in 24 hours, but at the end his
knees were so sore that he found it best to stop at ten. The reason for Stig to take on this stunt was that Tor-Erling Johansen had done seven trips a few years earlier ... |
After my skiing to Alnestinden earlier this Saturday I still had energy for a quick hike, and since I didn't have a good 360° panorama from Hellandshornet I wanted to hike this mountain. But by the time I got to the summit the cold north-eastern wind had generated a fair bit of fog around the summit so my panorama will have to wait.
While ascending/descending Hellandshornet I had to cross some small sections of snow through the boulder.
The initial plan for this Sunday was to drive "somewhere" to do a new mountain, but because of a cold I wasn't too keen on this. When Elisabeth mentioned, on Saturday night, that she would like to visit Hellandshornet (she hadn't been there for ten years) I thought that would suit me perfectly.
We left our house around 9:30 in separate cars. The first car we left at Reme so that we could do all the mountains on the Storfjellet massif (Hellandshornet, Storfjellet and Urfjellet) as well as Keipen, without having to walk all the way back from Reme to Helland.
At 09:55 we were all set at the trail head for Hellandshornet at Helland, and made our way up through the steep forest. When we got above the forest the wind was a bit strong, and when we got up to the base of the final boulder section we had to fight our way into the head wind. Walking in the boulder was not as easy as usual since the strong wind made balancing on the rocks a bit difficult at times. We both agreed that it was no point continuing the hike towards Keipen and Storfjellet after Hellandshornet, but would instead head back our ascent route.
The summit was a fairly hostile place this Sunday, and taking photos was not easy in the strong wind. We therefore didn't spend much time at the summit, and the chocolate we had brought along was kept in the rucksack ...
Back down in the forest we met another couple on their way uphill, and we warned them that they would have a rough time at the summit.
I hadn't been to Hellandshornet since 1999, almost embarrassing since Hellandshornet is dominating my living room view. I was therefore really looking forward to this hike. I started to walk 09:20 this Sunday morning. The temperature was 11C, and it was a bit windy. There was some snow in the boulder area, and at the top it was up to ½ metre of snow.
I saw three grouses near the top, and on the way back down two forest grouses. No sign of any humans.