Nice trip, but terrible snow on the way down
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Municipality | Location | Link |
| Veirahaldet | 1206m | 172m | Volda | GPX | WCP |
Based on feedback I’ve got on the below video clip, it’s not obvious that the snow conditions were bad. Well, for an experienced alpine skier from this region, this might be “business as usual”, but for me – the descent was a nightmare. The windpacked snow didn’t carry my weight and it was impossible for me to do normal turns. I had to jump in each turn.
But the trip up was nice. This was an afternoon trip. As I had walked in Ålesund this day, I didn’t leave home until 5pm. I drove to the Bondalseidet skiing centre and saw that I could ski from the car. Big bonus! By 6pm, I was ready to go to Veirahaldet.
I went up the slalom hill and then followed the service road, leading me to Storevatnet. A snow scooter had driven all the way to the upper ski-lift, which made the ascent for Karma a bit easier.
I had three skiers ahead of me. I passed one early on (and never saw this skier again). The two others were on top when I got there. I have to admit that I was more interested in Blåtinden, but given the current avalanche danger, there was one section on Blåtinden that I didn’t feel like passing.
The last time I was here was March 2 2012. Then, Terje and I turned around at 1120m due to ice and sliding danger. But today, there was no challenges during the ascent.
The views from this mountain are absolutely stunning. It may feel like Veirahaldet & Blåtinden is the center of the Sunnmøre alps.
The 4,1km and 890 vertical meter ascent took us 1h:20m. I had a good chat with the two skiers on top. One of them – Jonas Eriksson – works in the same company as I do, but it’s on the mountain tops we meet. Approx. once a year…
The descent was terrible. I watched Jonas go and he -killed- the mountain! My skiing abilities are not that sophisticated and I ran into serious problems on the icy crust that didn’t carry my weight. The best way to fight that kind of snow is to just blast through it. But I don’t have what it takes, so the only for me to get down the mountain was to jump each turn. That kinda worked, but it wasn’t fun.
I had one good pitch on top of the mountain service road, and one in the slalom hill. Apart from that, it was a trip I will remember for all the wrong reasons…
Trip statistics: 8,5km, 890 vertical meters, 2h:05m
Pictures from the trip:
