A nice round trip across the Ørsta-Volda city mountain
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Municipality | Location | Link |
| Melshornet | 807m | 564m | Ørsta/ Volda | GPX | WCP |
| Vardehornet | 600m | 60m | Ørsta/ Volda | – | – |
| Niven | 561m | 78m | Ørsta | – | – |
The round trip hike from Rystefeltet, across Okla, Melshornet and Vardehornet is a hike I’ve done only once before, but I enjoyed it so much that I wanted Anne to come along for this hike. The route would be slightly extended as I also wanted to visit Niven – where I hadn’t been before.
To get to the Rystefeltet trailhead, exit from Voldavegen towards Rystefeltet (signpost) just southwest of Ørsta. Turn right onto Leitevegen. After a sharp left turn, continue on Oklavegen and turn right onto Osskarvegen – which you follow all the way up to the parking.
From the Osskarvegen trailhead, we followed the forest road past the gate for 130 meters, then we turned left and followed the forest path. The path crosses the forest road one more time before it follows Oselva river into Osdalen. A lot of effort has been put into building this path. Kudos to the volunteers!
Once into Osdalen, the path turns northeast and runs steeply up Okla and to the pennant called Pølsa (the sausage). From here, you’ll get a fantastic view towards Ørsta (ref. the top picture).
As expected, Anne enjoyed this hike. We continued along the edge, towards Melshornet and continuously overlooking Ørsta. The last part up to Melshornet is a bit steep, but the path takes you safely up the hillside.
On Melshornet, the summit cairn attracts your attention, but the high point is located 50m to the south.
The view from the summit is just great. You’ll see a vast number of sharp Sunnmøre alps on the west side of the Hjørundfjord, in addition to the greater Volda and Vanylven peaks.
From Melshornet, we followed the southwest ridge down to the dam by lake Dinglavatnet. Then we continued up to Vardehornet (Litlehornet) – 600m.
From Vardehornet, we followed the Niven signpost and descended down to Osbakken and continued on a path up to Niven. From Niven, we had a great outlook post, approx. 560m above the Ørsta/Volda airport Hovden.
From Niven, we followed a path along the east ridge, but lost it as soon as it got steep. We decided to proceed off-trail and stayed right every time we faced a steep drop ahead of us.
Finally, we reached the Osdalen valley and headed north until we joined the path we followed going up. When we passed the top of the forest road, we decided to follow the forest road back down, just for the sake of variation.
Just before the trailhead, Anne was given the challenge to cross the gate without using her hands. Afterwards, we agreed that I won the contest in terms of style…
The 9,3km and 785 vertical meter hike took us 3h:13m.
Pictures from the hike:
