Kolsås

Kolsås
Village
Kolsås ridge
Kolsås Location in Akershus
Coordinates: 59°56′N 10°31′E
Country	Norway
Region	Østlandet
County	Akershus
Municipality	Bærum
Time zone	UTC+01:00 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+02:00 (CEST)

Kolsås (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈkôɫsoːs]), sometimes called Kolsaas, is a hill in the municipality of Bærum, Norway. Geologically, Kolsås belongs to the Oslo Graben area. Its two peaks consist of hard rhomb porphyric lava covering softer rocks, forming steep cliffs to the east, south and west.

The name

An old farm beneath the mountain has the name Kolsberg. The first element in this name is the genitive case of the old male name Kolr, and the last element is berg n 'mountain'. The parish and municipality of Bærum (Old Norse Bergheimr) is probably named after this prominent mountain. The last element in the name of the mountain was later changed to ås m 'mountain ridge' to distinguish it from the name of the farm.

Dælivannet seen from Kolsås

Protected landscape area

The area from Kolsås to Dælivannet is a protected landscape area from 1978 (five square kilometers), with four nature reserves: Skotta, Dalbo, Kolsåsstupene and Kolsåstoppen nature reserve.^[1][2]

Climbing

Kolsås has been a training area for climbers since beginning of the 20th century. Today it is the largest rock climbing area in the Oslo region. The wall Øvre Sydstup on the southern wall has more than 200 climbing routes.^[3][4]

Winter sports

The northern hillside of Kolsås has alpine skiing facilities.

Kolsås protruding in the landscape

Kolsåsbanen

Kolsåsbanen is part of the subway rail system Oslo T-bane, running from downtown Oslo to Kolsås station, via Gjettum station and Hauger station.

NATO base

The military base Kolsås leir, partly located inside the mountain, was home of NATO's Allied Forces Northern Europe (AFNORTH) until 1994.^[5]

Culture

The area has occurrences of old petroglyphs, tumuli and limestone quarries.

The French painter Claude Monet painted Mont Kolsaas in 1895.^[6]

References

1. (in Norwegian) "Naturvernområder i Bærum"^{[permanent dead link‍]} – Bærum kommune (Retrieved on March 30, 2008)
2. (in Norwegian) "Snelle-askeskog i Dalbo naturreservat" Archived 2007-10-05 at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved on March 30, 2008)
3. (in Norwegian) "Klatring på Kolsås i hundre år" Archived 2011-06-05 at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved on March 30, 2008)
4. (in Norwegian) "Kolsås klatreklubb: Klatrefører for Oslo og omegn" (Retrieved on March 30, 2008)
5. "NATO handbook07 uploaded March 25, 1993" Archived June 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved on March 30, 2008)
6. "Claude Monet: Mont Kolsaas (1895)" (Retrieved on March 30, 2008)