Kolsås is a wooded mountain ridge 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.

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.

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.

Winter sports

The northern hillside of Kolsås has alpine skiing facilities.

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.

Culture

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

The French painter Claude Monet painted Mont Kolsaas in 1895.

The name

The last element in the name is ås m 'mountain ridge'. The first element is probably the genitive case of the old male name Kolr. (An old farm lying beneath the mountain has the name Kolsberg, and this farm is probably named after the same person.)

References