One of the best ski-trips so far this year…
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Municipality | Location | Link |
| Sunndalsnipa | 1396m | 566m | Volda | Map | WCP |
First and foremost, I think the video says it all…
Anne and me got an invitation to ski this mountain from our friend Bjørn Skoge. It was supposed to be a large group – close to a dozen people. But as others wanted a later start in the day, the group got divided into two. Anne and me met Bjørn and Harald Svein at Garneskrysset, and then they picked up Ole Jacob at Hovden. It was a gorgeous day and Sunndalsnipa reflected in Austefjorden as we passed.
The Grøndalen trailhead was packed with other skiers. Stranda Turlag alone had a group of twenty-some people. But being up there fairly early, we found parking. Some minutes later (10:37am), we were ready for departure.
Due to the cold night and the sharp sun in the morning, the snow conditions were perfect. My dog Karma had no problems walking on the snow. We all knew right away that this would be a very memorable day…
We stayed east in Litlevassdalen valley and got eventually on the ridge. There were skiers everywhere, and although I don’t fancy crowded mountains, it didn’t bother me at all. All I was thinking about was this gorgeous day and the upcoming descent.
There is a short, steep hill at 1000m elevation which can be a bit awkward if the snow is too hard or too soft. But today, it was easy.
After this hill, there was one more hill (gentle) before we reched the summit plateau – where there’s approx. 1km of skiing on flat terrain until we could touch the cairn.
We reached the summit 1:15pm, roughly 2,5 hours after heading out from Grøndalen. We arrived there at the same time with Stranda Turlag, so the summit was quite packed with people. Good thing there is plenty of space up there…
It was nice to finally get to do a ski-trip with Bjørn and meet Harald Svein and Ole Jacob. I hope we can go on more trips with them!
After a 35 minute pause on top, it was time for the highlight of the day – the descent. I was somewhat worried about the number of people, as I wanted to let Karma run unleashed down the mountain. But we had the ridge almost to ourselves upon descent.
As the video clip shows, the ski descent was a pure delight. It was probably even better conditions in the “bowl” above Litlevassdalen, but the ridge was more than good enough for us. On this fairly hard surface, I was unable to outrun Karma. She is darn fast!
We followed a procedure where Anne held Karma back, I took off and then she would let Karma go and follow on. That way, we didn’t risk getting into a situation where Karma would get in contact with my skis. That has happened once before, and we certainly don’t want that to ever happen again!
We were back at the Grøndalen trailhead 2:38pm – very close to 4 hours after departure. The trip was SO nice that I came back the very next day – in the afternoon – to ski Eidskyrkja. Report to follow…
Trip statistics: 11,4km, 1000 vertical meters, 4 hours.
Pictures from the trip:
