The small charming house with its unique past and history is located a few steps away from the cairn, which marks Trysilfjellet's highest point 1132 meters above sea level. Trysilfjellet 1132 is included in the summit tour program and is one of the most popular hiking destination in Trysil.

From the Fire Guard Cabin you have a fantastic view in all directions. You can see Rondane and Sølen in the north, Lake Osen in the west and far into Sweden in the east. It was precisely the view, or perhaps most of all the overview, that made the Fire Guard Cabin set up in its time. From there, forest fires in huge forest areas could be detected and alerted. There are few places in Trysil with such a view as from the Fire Guard Cabin, and it is therefore no wonder that this is a favorite hiking destination.

A copy of the original

The fire guard cabin we meet today is not the one that was built almost 90 years ago. After the guard hut at the top of the mountain had played its part, it was demolished in the 1970s. Rather, the fire department in Trysil was tasked with burning it down. The place that for many decades had had the function of detecting fires, became the victim of the flames itself. Admittedly, under completely controlled circumstances.

The story didn't stop there, thankfully. From the days of the war, through both the 1950s and 60s, many Tryslingers had a relationship with the Fire Guard Cabin. Although it took two and a half hours to walk the long and heavy road from Innbygda (Trysil center), there were still people who made their way to the top of Trysilfjellet to visit the mountain cabin. 

Before the alpine development in Trysilfjellet south took off in the mid-1970s, the Fire Guard Cabin was the Easter destination in Trysilfjellet. In the Yearbook for Trysil from 2014, it is said that in the mid-1950s, Sverre Sørhus began selling in the guard cabin during the Easter days. This turned out to be a great success, and the destination became even more popular.

The Tryslings' memories and relationship with the small house at the top made the idea of erecting a new, similar building emerged. On October 7, 2017, there was a public celebration of 1,132 when the new Fire Guard Cabin was inaugurated. DDE vocalist and frontman Bjarne Brøndbo was the draw and sang and played so that it resounded in the mountains; "The impossible is possible".

Trysilfjell Utmarkslag rebuild the cabin

It was Trysilfjell Utmarkslag that made it possible for the Fire Guard Cabin to be resurrected almost exactly as the original looked. This was really a new house on old tufts. The landowner organization in Trysilfjellet thought it was worth the money to recreate the popular hiking destination, after Eva and Ole Kristian Nerberg in Utmarkslaget in 2010 suggested setting up a copy, exactly in the same place. The outfield team outsourced the job to Nybergsund IL Trysil, where members and players at the then level three in Norwegian football set up the cabin on a voluntary basis.

"My first day as a fire guard has now ended, I hope there will be more, because nowhere has there burned, I have been able to observe."

A cabin with a rich history

The story of the Fire Guard Cabin is as exciting as it is fascinating. Since it is a copy we are talking about, it is perhaps going too far to say that the story is in the walls, but it is not far off. 

The original fire guard cabin was built in 1936/1937. There is a picture from 1936 that shows horse transport with materials to the mountain top. At first, there was a call to build a watchtower on Trysilfjellet, but the result was a cabin. As early as 1939, ski races were arranged with the cabin as a base.

Carl Näss was the first to work as a firefighter in Trysilfjellet. There were also substitutes who stepped in, one of them Olaf Løvås who on 19 June 1938 made the following note in verse form in the logbook: "My first day as a fire guard has now ended, I hope there will be more, because nowhere has there burned I have been able to observe". (Source: Yearbook for Trysil 2014)

From the war, a dramatic event is told early in the occupation. The Germans suspected that subversive activities were taking place in Trysilfjellet. On one occasion, in May 1940, the Germans peppered the Fire Guard Cabin from airplanes, with a machine gun and grenades. Inside the cabin there was a "good" Trysling. He escaped into the fireplace while the fire was on, but was hit by shrapnel in a finger. The marks of shrapnel were in the walls of the cabin all the years later.

There is no documentation of how many fires were discovered from the guard cabin on Trysilfjellet over the years. Some notes exist, such as that at 12.30 on 1 August 1942, the first forest fire of the day was observed and warned of at Håsjøen in Elverum, the neighboring municipality to the west.

The blue lights on

Those who were at the top of Trysilfjellet hardly made themselves rich. In 1965, the then fire chief Kjell Meeg is behind a letter in which it is stated that the forest owners pay for the forest fire watch and that it costs about NOK 4,000 a year. At that time, there had been no salary adjustment for many years. The fire chief stated that the cabin was dilapidated and needed extensive maintenance. The fire chief's conclusion was that the benefit was not proportionate to the expenses that would come. In his then three-year work as head of the fire protection in Trysil, there had been 16 call-outs to forest and grass fires, and none of them had been notified the first time by the forest fire guard in the mountains. 

In a way, that conclusion was the beginning of the end for the fire surveillance from 1132 in Trysilfjellet. Admittedly, a few more years passed when it was considered to use the fire guard cabin both as a base station for the police's radio communication and a mobile phone station for Televerket, without this leading to any more use of the mountain cabin.

The fire guard's cabin's first part of the story ended as a fire in the late 70s. Some of the materials were preserved, including panels with bullet holes from the war and various inscriptions made with a knife and axe, and other mementos from 40 years as a hiking destination.

How to reach the top

The top of Trysilfjellet with the Fire Guard Cabin is accessible from both the south and north sides of the mountain. The hike from the north side is the longest, but also the gentlest. The northern route starts from Trysilfjell Høyfjellsenter in Fageråsen.

Hiking route 31 – Trysilfjellet 1132 north

• Length: 5.2 km round trip
• Total ascent: 302 m
• Highest point: 1,132 m above sea level
• Graduation: BLUE
• See tour description here

Hiking route 30 – Trysilfjellet 1132 south

• Length: 3.6 km round trip
• Total ascent: 307 m
• Highest point: 1,132 m above sea level
• Graduation: RED
• See tour description here

Text: Halvard Berget