As noted on the previous page, Hägefjell is the most famous part of Nissedalen, as it by far is the most impressive rock face in the region.

Hägefjell (in the back) seen from the road to Nissedalen camping situated in a spectacular setting by the lake "Nisser".

Hägefjell seen from the parking lot. Routes in all grades exist exist on the face - the routes we climbed are on the right (Via Lara is actually so far to the right that it is not visible on this photo).

One of the most popular routes in the area is Via Lara (grade 4+, 380 m, ~10 pitches), which is reputed as one of the best grade 4 granite climbs in the world! Obviously we had to climb the route and see if all the fuzz and buzz was correct, but not surprisingly, we were not the only ones with that goal and we thus had to wait in line behind several teams in order to get our shot.

Looking up on the line of climbers on "Via Lara" and neighboring routes.

Move the mouse over the picture to see the route.

Luckily, the granite rock is very solid, and the risk of getting hit by rock fall dislodged by climbers above is thus very small. Accordingly, we didn't worry about having several rope teams above us as we began climbing.

Elvira following on one of the first pitches.

A look upwards approximately halfway up. At this place you have to traverse a bit to the right in order to get to the big crack seen on the right under a red rope - otherwise you will get into trouble!

The cracks and rope quickly turned into water funnels and as we climbed water was thus thus funneled into the sleeves of our Gore-Tex jackets as we climbed. Parties on the neighboring route quickly began to rappel as they had in-situ bolt anchors on their route, but Vira Lara is 100 % traditional and we would thus have to leave gear if we wanted to bail!

And a look downward from the same position halfway up. Great cracks, right!?

Some rope teams below us were able to get off by a rope that was thrown to them from the neighboring route, but we were not that lucky! We debated what to do, and finally decided to climb through the rain - after all is was just a grade 4!

Elvira on the summit - what a stunning view of the lake "Nisser" and surroundings!

Further up, it stopped raining, but that was not the end of our trouble as we still had to find the walk-off, which turned out to be harder to locate that anticipated. There were several cairns on the summit plateau, but they didn't help much as they were in all directions (given that people reach the summit from many different directions). We thus followed our intuition, having learned our lesson from the day before, and thus eventually found the right way down. So take care here, as there are places you don't want to fall over the ridge, and in particular in bad weather it can be difficult to find the right way down.

Towards the way down - beware of the walk-off which is not easy to find!