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Samhjarte from Fjellbu, going up from east |
| Estimated net time | 2-2½ hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties. |
| Drinking water | Access to running water just after having passed the cabin "Gjersethytta". |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route. |
| Parking | Room for many cars at the north end of lake Synnalandsvatnet. |
| Start height | 90 metres |
| Vertical metres | 430 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 10.7 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
If arriving Brattvåg from south on road 659 continue for 2.5 km after having entered the 50km/h zone. Here one will pass the Coop and the "Ingebrikt Davik-huset" (on one's right hand side). Turn left, continuing on the Storgata road for another 250 metres. Just before a small bridge, after having passed the Brattvåg primary school, turn left. Continue upwards for 1.1 km, and turn right after having passed the first speed bump. Drive another 200 metres until one reaches the parking place by lake Synnalandsvatnet. Here one will find ample parking space. In the unlikely event that this parking place is full then more parking space can be found by the Brattvåg kindergarten; go back 200 metres to the last junction and turn right. After 250 metres the kindergarten can be found on the left hand side. Parking here during day-time Monday-Friday will require permission from the kindergarten.
From the parking place cross the Synnalandsvatnet dam and head up to the floodlit road running along the west side of Synnalandsvatnet. This road is suitable for bikes. Continue along this road to the south end of the lake. Here the road is forking, with one road running back north on the east side of the lake, and one road continuing southbound. Continue heading south. The quality of the road is for the next kilometre not so suitable for cycling, but it gets much better again further south.
Approximately 1 km south of Synnalandsvatnet one reaches another lake; Gjersetvatnet, and the cabin Gjersethytta. 100 metres after the cabin the road crosses a small river. This is a good place to drink and fill the water bottle.
Continue on the road up to the highest point, signed "Høgstølen". Here one will see a path going off to the right (west), that lead directly up the east ridge of Samhjarte. The path can be a little hard to find in some places, but if in doubt one should just continue upwards and west. Just below the summit the path coming up from east joins the path running up from south. Continue on this path, north bound, the last ~100 metres (~40 vertical metres).
The descent is quickest done using the ascent route, but the nicest and easiest is probably the one going down south towards lake Urkedalsvatnet.
The plan was to visit one of the Ørskogfjellet mountains by ski this Sunday. After a check with Arnt I got confirmation that most likely the snow would be very hard, and the descent conditions could be tough. I therefore decided to do some local mountains; Samhjarte and Håvikhornet.
I set out from home at 11:20 and did good pace along the gravel road on the west side of lake Synnalandsvatnet. As I got up to lake Gjersetvatnet I realised that crossing the dam here would be dangerous; the water was running above the dam, and a mix of ice and water didn't tempt me to be used for crossing a narrow dam. I therefore decided to do only Samhjarte on this fine day (around zero, little wind, and sunny).
There was a fair amount of rock hard snow in the forest of the east slope of Samhjarte, but using the small trees for assistance made the ascent relatively easy work. On top of Samhjarte there was a chilling wind, and at this time of year the sun isn't much use as a heater, even in middle of the day.
As I was standing on top of Samhjarte a flock of >80 grouse came up from Ryssdalen and flew across to Hellandshornet/Storfjellet. A really amazing view.
The descent on the hard snow proved to be more an exercise for the arms than the legs, since I was depending on using my hands to hold on to trees in order to avoid sliding. The descent proceeded without any accidents. Hopefully the forest grouse I frightened in the lower parts of Samhjarte also got away without any mental or physical injuries.
The hike was finished off by a hard run back along Synnalandsvatnet to be home for lunch.