The whole route is done on forest road and well marked path.
Start of route to Vardafjellet from above Kaland school.
| Vardafjellet from
Sineset Vardafjellet |
| Estimated net time | 1-1½ hours | ||
| Difficulty |
No difficulties. The whole route is done on forest road and well marked path. |
||
| Drinking water | Several sources of running water along the route. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route, except a short distance inside the forest (September 2010). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at trail head. | ||
| Start height | 58 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 300 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 3.8 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
| ||
| Route photo |
| ||
From Bergen drive south to Nesttun, and then road E39 towards Os and Stavanger. A little less than 6 km from Nesttun, while driving along lake Kalandsvatnet, locate a football stadium and Kaland school on the right hand side of the road. Exit road E39 and find parking in front of the school.
Walk back along the car park and onto road E39, and then walk approximately 70 metres along road E39, in the direction of Bergen. Cross the road, and then cross the fields behind a bus stop, aiming to the left of the forest. After 110 metres you will hit a forest road, where you turn right. Follow this forest road uphill 350 metres, to there the forest road makes a sharp left turn. Instead of turning left you should cross the gate a continue straight ahead on the path into the spruce forest. This path is marked by red paint on the trees, and can be followed all the way to the summit. The summit is found 50 metres north of a concrete cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
When I hiked Vardafjellet from Hennli the previous week, I decided to try the route from Kaland school, but didn't expect this to happen this soon. The reason for taking on this route so soon was the poor weather this Wednesday. And even though the weather improved considerably by the time I left work, I couldn't be bothered to change my plans.
As I was about to leave work I met colleague Ingunn, and I asked her if she wanted to join me for an easy hike. She was on, and after having been back to the hotel to get changed we were on our way towards trail head. Only now did I tell Ingunn that I didn't know the exact trail head, but she's never bogged down by minor problems, and we agreed that we would always find someone to ask.
We decided to park at Kaland school, and asked in total four persons passing by. None of them knew where we could find the path, but one lady gave her best guesstimate, which soon proved to be the right route. And once on the forest road navigation was dead easy, and after a little more than 30 minutes we had made it to the summit. Here we enjoyed the OK-ish views, before heading back down. Down in the forest we met a hiker and his dog, and back down at the forest road I met the hiker I had met close to the summit last week. We obviously chatted a little, and I think both of us smiled to himself of this coincidence.