Lofoten part three: the battle with Stetind and 22 hours driving

What happened in part 1 and part 2: Frank, Anne, Roomster, Micha, Yeti, and me drove all the way up from Oslo to Trondheim, and then up the coast to Bodø where we crossed over to Værøy and the Lofoten. We spent several beautiful days hiking, climbing, and visiting white beaches on the Lofoten islands. As a last highlight we climbed the horns of the Svolvær geita.

Only the last two days of our three weeks holiday story is missing, but these were two two very important days. After heading with a ferry from the last Lofoten island Hinnøya back to the mainland, we stayed at a very nice camp site in Ballangen, close to Norway's national mountain. Stetind (1392 m) was voted national mountain because of its epic look. It has steep granite slopes reaching up from the fjord to its top on all sides, and a flat tip - as if the peak had once broken off. Therefore the tip is also known as "the devil's dance floor". These days the mountain is surrounded by long and difficult climbing routes, however, the first ascent was made 1910 via a 1304 m high lower summit called "Halls fortopp", which can be reached by easy hiking with some scrambling. This lower summit and the real summit of Stetind are only separated by a short ridge traverse, which has however one psychically very challenging section called the "fingertip-traverse". Here, a blank vertical face has to be traversed that has holds only for the hands, nothing for the feet. And when trying to look down to find something for the feet, there is the unrestricted view to the forest and lakes 1000 m below. Quite an airy section.. .
This historical route was the approach we had chosen to climb Stetind. Knowing about the fingertip-traverse beforehand, Micha was leading the climb and I stopped looking down already at Halls fortopp. So my main battle with Stetind was not to look down :) In this combination we made it all the way to the flat top, where we were all alone to enjoy the wonderful view, and to dance on the devil's dance floor. On such a huge flat top, even I dared to look down, and we did as on Preikestolen and Kjeragbolten, laying flat on the belly and stretching the head over the edge to have the wind blown into the face and the long and steep view down, and over the fjords and other peaks. Epic! Luckily, on the way back the fingertip-traverse can be abseiled down, making the return to the fortopp quite easy.

Stetind from Halls fortopp

traverse in the guide book

traverse in real.

summit log on Stetind

A couple of hours later we were already on the road again, starting the long drive back to Oslo. As I said in the title, 22 hours of driving. Nothing really exciting happened. We stopped here and there to eat something, or to change who's driving. We saw huge flocks of reindeer just beside the road through the Saltfjellet-Svartisen national park, but again no elks, although extensive warnings signs lined the roads. On the next evening, just before midnight we reached Oslo and our home. All ok, Yeti fine, we fine, happy about a very very nice holidays, and ready to get back to work.... .