Storehanen, Selsteinen, Aug 11 2016

My first mountain run in 2016

Peaks visited:

Peak Height PF Municipality Location
Sandvikhornet 352m 14m Herøy GPX
Storehanen 496m 68m Herøy
Selsteinen 598m 90m Herøy
Slettheia 552m 49m Herøy
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On Storehanen, enjoying the views and a double rainbow

I am unfamiliar with the concept of restitution. Which is a real downside when I normally visit 400-500 mountain tops per year, with a total vertical gain of more than 200,000 meters. So, something is always aching. For the  last months, it’s been a knee – preventing me from running up and down mountains, which I enjoy doing.

But sometimes I’m lucky. Like with the 3 past days of horrible weather. It’s early August and the Sunnmørsalpane mountain range just across the fjord has snow from 1000m and up! The first day with rain I didn’t hike at all. The next two days, I did very short hikes. And the knee got better!

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Snowy mountains to the right. Aug 11. A bit too early for my taste

So today, I was able to do my first mountain run in 2016. And it was along my favorite route; Tjørvåg – Sandvikhornet – Storehanen – Selsteinen – Slettheia – Øyrahornet – Tjørvåg.

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My favorite route for running

The climb up to 400m was hard, but then I had a few kilometers with easy terrain and found a good rhythm. Halfway to Storehanen, Karma and I were hit by a rain shower. We arrived rather wet on Storehanen (496m) 49m:17s after leaving the car in Tjørvåg. That was only 29 seconds away from my personal record in 2014. So while my running shape is terrible, the overall condition seems good.

The reward for this rain shower was a perfect double rainbow. Even if it was still raining, I paused the stopwatch and enjoyed the view.

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Very nice!

The next stop was Selsteinen (598m) – a near 200m vertical meter climb. There was no way I was able to run up this steep hill, but I was still able to walk quickly. The stopwatch said 1h:05m:31s when we arrived on the summit.

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On Selsteinen

From Selsteinen, we continued off-trail towards Slettheia. Bog and bumpy terrain doesn’t make running easy, but I am quite familiar with this type of terrain and kept a good pace. We passed Slettheia and stopped near Øyrahornet for some more pictures. I just love the view towards Hareidlandet island.

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View from below Øyrahornet – towards Hareidlandet

I had to take it easy from Øyrahornet and down. The ground was very slippery and I had like 10 near-accidents. Fortunately, my reflexes seem pretty good – probably a bonus from this “trade” and I made it back to Tjørvåg with my self-esteem fairly intact. The whole round trip took 1h:54m:41s.

Pictures from the trip:

 

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