Langeskavltinden (18.07.2025)

Another day of hot and sunny weather, bringing our streak of (mostly) good weather to nearly 3 weeks! Today was the last of 3 days near Tyin and we'd be travelling back to Lillehammer in the evening (and subsequently the UK, a few days later). We'd climbed Urdanostind 2 days prior but had aborted Falketind yesterday (a large snow bank near the 1291 lake made the route unsafe to pass); we were determined to actually make it up a top today, so opted with an easier looking tour Langeskavltinden.

The route had already intrigued us as Langeskavltinden appeared on the map to protrude into a large glacier - its peak nearly surrounded by ice and this ice surrounded by gnarly mountains (including Urdanostind). We had some concern that progress on the 23km route might be slow as it was hard to assess footfall online. Little did we know that the ongoing Vinjerock would bring many onto the fell today!

Starting near Fondsbu, the route steadily ascended alongside a small stream. Here we could see the scale of Vinjerock, with hundreds of colourful tents dotted on the remote hillside. We soon deviated from the well-trodden path, heading north at the 1322 lake. A small trod appeared intermittently in accordance to where it should be on the map and we gained some more elevation. At around 1550m we were faced with a steep snow patch (the first of many!). There weren't many footprints to be found or followed, but we crossed the patch anyway.

At around 1700m we arrived at the lengthy flatter plateau. There was no path to be found here, but a rocky ridge ran parallel to a snowfield giving us control over the terrain underfoot. We opted to walk on the rock on inclines and jog on the snow wherever there was a decline. Still no people to be found, nor footprints, but this was about to rapidly change!

We'd worried that this plateau would be a long slog to the two summits, especially since we'd be returning the same way, but this was not the case. It felt wild up here. Great views across to Falketind throughout; we even saw plenty of reindeer were chilling out on the snow! Suddenly, running down the snow ahead of us, came a group of runners. From this point onwards we saw many groups like this, probably from the festival, but it made us wonder why we encountered no footprints on our ascent earlier...

Upon reaching the first summit of Langeskavlen you are rewarded with the view across to the 2000m peak of the day, Langeskavltinden! Alice wasn't amused with the prospect of descending and reascending to get there, only to turn around and retrace our steps all the way back. Admittedly, it looked pretty far away, but I reassured her it was only 2km! Stopping for lunch along the way, Alice agreed that peaks often appear more distant than they actually are. It wasn't long before we were climbing the steep snowy slopes below the 2000m summit. Before we could get too anxious about descending the snow on our return leg, we watched as six or so runners glided down, almost skiing on their feet.

The summit of Langeskavltinden brings you onto a rocky outcrop, surrounded by large glaciers - most of which aren't visible until you reach the peak! The panorama of rocky peaks sampled from across Jotunheimen makes this little summit a worthy objective.

We took after the Norwegian runners and jogged down the snow, which was soft and satisfyingly runnable. Progress was quick and we were soon back at Langeskavlen. We zig-zagged around the plateau on the way down to a number of sub-summits, each of which offering a different perspective of the area. We opted to jog along the snow for as long as we could on the return leg: it being slightly downhill and baking the afternoon sun. The steeper patch of snow from the morning was now covered in glissade tracks (making us question which way most others had ascended) and we made sure to slide 50m or so on our bottoms.

T-shirts, shorts, sun and snow: this was such a fun summer outing and an excellent finale to our 3 week holiday in the Norwegian mountains.

Photos: TODO