Evening Hike Up the Northwest Ridge of Mount Ulriken (20.06.2016)

© Atle Solholm

On this longest day of the year, I made this combined run and hike in the city of Bergen, Norway. I started out by running along Lake Alrekstadvatnet [commonly referred to as Svartediket, i.e. "The Black Dike"] in Ulriksdalen Valley. At the end of the valley I circumscribed the east end of the lake, passing the valleys of Våkendalen, Hardbakkedalen and Isdalen; and then came to the foot of the mountain ridge called Ulrikseggen. [The proper translation of "Ulrikseggen" is "The Mount Ulriken mountain ridge", though the Norwegian word "egg" in Ulrikseggen actually corresponds to the English word "edge"]. At the foot of The Mount Ulrik Ridge, there's some dense birch forrest, and there where multiple trails in the forrest, hence a little bit difficult to know which one to choose. I simply picked one that seemed to go in the right direction, however, and that proved to be the right one. The trail was quite steep, but not too challenging to climb. The view overlooking Lake Alrekstadvatnet with the dam became more and more amazing the higher up I came. The ridge eventually flattened out a bit as I was approaching the top of the mountain. And just there, where the ridge was no longer so steep, was the lower end of a zip-line that starts out at the upper stop of the cable car on Mount Ulriken. I think this zip-line has offered a lot of fun to a lot of people.

I walked over to the Ulriken Mountain Restaurant and the cable car station, and from there I followed another mountain ridge (a southeast ridge of Mount Ulriken) down to the city districts of Monatna and Lægdene, where I live when I'm in Bergen. It was close to midnight when I was back home, but that didn't matter, as darkness comes extremely late in the western part of Norway at this time of the year. The bright summer nights don't last forever, though. Soon I'll have to wear a headlamp for an evening hike like this one.