Finally heading for the mountains again

I have mentioned earlier that I have grown more and more fond of uphill and trail running. Now that the snow is slowly disappearing from the mountains around Bergen, and the evenings are light, new opportunities for wonderful trail running adventures open.

Until Bergen Fjellmaraton last June, the only long enough proper running trail I knew was the plateau between Ulriken and Fløyen mountains, which is called Vidden. However, often you want to be able to do a round trip so that you end up where you started. In this respect the closely connected Fløyen, Blåmanen, Rundemanen mountains (they actually rather form one single big mountain) are perfect. Before, I only knew the most basic paths in this area, and most mainstream paths are covered with quite hard packed gravel, so they do not really count as proper trails. The last part of Bergen Fjellmaraton from Rundemanen to finish contained many paths I had never been to that are really really wonderful. During last fall I also discovered many new paths thanks to the Blåmanen races. I have now started to combine several of these paths to make extremely pleasant long enough trail running courses. Let me describe one for you:

Start at the beginning of Fjellveien (close to Restaurant Bellevue) with a slow warm up run until the starting point of Stoltzekleiven. After this pleasant warm up, do the Stoltzekleiven as fast as you can. Take a short (and absolutely necessary!) break at the top.

From there continue up until the lake and then take to right.

At the first junction take to right again, towards Skredderdalen, but don't go down Skredderdalen. Instead, continue upwards towards Fløyen and arrive at Åsebu. Take to right and run around Åsebu until you hit the main path again.

On the main path, run down towards Fløyen until the last big (and steep) right turn before Fløyen. Take to left in the middle of the turn towards Fjellhytten (there is a sign there pointing to Skomakerdiket). Once you reach Skomakerdiket, continue on the upper side of the lake towards Fjellhytten (now the sign says Fjellhytten). Follow the signs to Fjellhytten until you reach it. Either continue on the backside straight ahead or take a short break to enjoy the view and then continue.

Where you want to end up is Rundemansveien. This trail, from the main Fløyen path until the main Rundemanen path is truly beautiful. Once you reach Rundemansveien turn left to go to Brushytten and then follow the main path back. I took to left to Skomakerdiket before reaching Fløyen, and then took to left again to go towards Svartediket/Isdalen.

 

This left path to Svartediket is quite pretty;  it is slightly downhill in the beginning, and you have a beautiful view of the city all the way. Then it goes steeply down to Svartediket.

 

Instead of going all the way to Svartediket, take the streets towards the city at the first opportunity to get back to exactly where you started.

The described course (you can find its gps details here) turned out to be exactly 14 km, however it can be made much longer as you wish. Once the snow is completely gone, I plan to take right at Rundemansveien and go to Blåmanen and then to Rundemanen and then down. Another opportunity is to go directly to Rundemanen taking to right in the middle of Rundemansveien, up a steep hill (this was a part of the Bergen Fjellmaraton which I really enjoyed) and then going to Blåmanen on the way back from Rundemanen. Further down, you can add another round at Åsebu. Other options include going straight ahead or to left from the top of Stoltzekleiven to reach Kvitebjørnen via Ankerhytten or via Munkebotn, and then go to Rundemanen. The possibilities are quite endless, and contain many parts I still have never tried yet.

I will get back to you with more suggestions as I try out new combinations!