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As national route 55 curles around it, despite being far from the highest or biggest mountain in Jotunheimen, Fannaraken is a mountain that dominates one's view for quite some time, when driving through the national park.
From the north it looks impressive, as it's northflank is completely covered in glacial ice. From the west one can't help but being intimidated by it's southern neighbour, the Skagastolstindane, a very impressive sharp teethed mountain that's part of the even bigger range of Hurrungane.
After having summited Galdhopiggen we were drawn to Jotunheimen's other summits. But the Jotunheimen-west maps don't show too much paths (Sti in Norsk) that actually reach mountaintops. Fannaraken is one of the few that has a summitpath. And as we weren't in for alpine adventures, Fannaraken it would be, both hoping it would be less crowded than Galdhopiggen.
Fannaraken reaches a hight of 2068 meters and it's summit can be reached by a partially circular walk or a to-and-back walk. The starting point is the parkingplace of Turtrago, a hotel and what not along route 55. From there one follows a very muddy path through the shrubs surroundig the parkingplace, till you reach a better gravel road that leads to some holiday houses in the valley of Helgedalen, a valley that on it's turn leads to the feet of Fannaraken.
It is a forested valley, but due to being at an altitude of nearly 1000 meters already, the trees are small and look more like shrubs than trees.
Here you can see today's goal from Helgedalen valley, mirrored in a pool:
Along this gravel road there's one thing that catches your eyes non stop: a massive waterfall almost straight ahead. No photos of than one though, since all photos I took don't do the grandeur and might any justice.
Here we are, we left the gravel road and you see the mrs making her way up the mountain path. The waterfall is visible in the background, but still not good enough to get a good idea of it's size:
The gravel road that led to this mountainpath is about 4 kilometers long. This is looking at it from over our shoulders:
At we continued and got higher up, slow but steady, it got clear where this waterfall was coming from. Behind us were, although covered in clouds, the teeth of the Skagastolstindane and the massive Styggedalsbreen, a steep glacier crawling down it's host's flanks:
The mountain is massive. As we get higher up, the path roughly follows a burn/waterfall on our left, we are flanked by an outlier of Fannaraken, that makes the mountain look like a camel's back from afar.
The path takes a turn to the right, and it starts to zigzag towards the summit. The lovely green mos and heather have gone now, the dark granite (I think) rocks and the ever more present clouds and fog together form the only landscape now. The path is, although very steep, as good as it gets in this type of ground though and it is properly waymarked with the ever present red capital T:
By the time we reach the snow line, visibility is zero. Temperature as well I might add (in Celcius that is). It's difficult to get an idea of how far we are and how much still lies in front of us:
But quite to our surprise, as soon as there's a little cloudlift, it's clear that we're near the summit: the mountainhut that's built on the summit plateau is in sight. Inside they sell hot food and drinks, but as we have little money on us but we do have our own food, we decide to have a picknick just outside the hut, in the freezing cold:
After we finish our dinner we head into the hut, that's maintained by the Norwegian mountain association. It is a lovely hut, nothing like the one on Galdhopiggen. It's clean (leave shoes and jackets and anything that's wet in the portal), it's not crowded (a dozen people I would guess) and it's very comfortable (nice granny-style sofas).
Outside it's just plain grimm. Icy rain and no view whatsoever. We decide to spend our last money on coffee and tea, wait out the weather a bit and return to the car.
But suddenly there's a turmoil, I don't know if I caused it, but I'm certainly part of it. Against all odds the clouds seem to have made way for the sun. I, amongst most others, franticly search for my camera while rushing out in unlaced boots and with no jacket on. It is cold but it's worth it. Even though what seemed to be just a short lived clearing up of the sky turns out to last for several hours. Nevermind. This is what I saw:
At first the sun is still a bit unsure, the clouds don't really seem ready to give up
But views get better and better. I'm crisscrossing the plateau, a headless chicken, not knowing where to look and what picture to shoot. It's wonderful
Here's two people passing the weatherstation that's placed on the summitplateau.
Here's the view on the valley we came from.
Here's the mrs with the hut in the background, giving a good idea of what the plateau looks like:
And here she is on the actual highest point:
But however much the skies are clearing up, the clouds don't seem to want to reaveal the teeth of Skagastolstindane. A real pity. I've seen them from the car in full glory and they are very impressive. Would have loved to see them from high up. Here they are covered in clouds:
Some more shots and, forgive me, a summitselfie:
