Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Municipality |
| Kvasstinden | 1180m | 110m | Rauma |
| Smørbottind (Smørbottfjellet) | 1188m | 498m | Rauma |
The forecast for the weekend was great and Anne and I agreed that we should explore new territory. After looking through maps, we landed on a weekend in Åndalsnes. Not that Åndalsnes was “new territory”, but it’s been a while since we’ve done anything good up there.
There are many excellent mountains for skiing in close proximity, and I was primarily thinking about Kvasstinden and Smørbottinden – easily accessible from the Skorgedalen skiing center. Anne felt this was a good proposal.
On Saturday morning, we left Gurskøya and drove to Isfjorden – a 3 hour drive. We drove up to Skorgedalen and saw that we were definitely not alone up here today.
We found the skiing track towards Smørbottinden and headed out – looking forward to a GRAND day in the Romsdal mountains.
The snow was of perfect quality, and that made me a bit restless. I wanted to get up as quickly as possible, so I could strap my boots and have the greatest run so far in 2017.
But more important than the snow quality was the idea of returning with 2 new tops. Anne was content with Smørbottinden only, but wished me well on my detour to Kvasstinden.
I reached Kvasstinden 1h:25m after leaving the trailhead. I caught up with one guy ahead of me, and we had a quick chat before I continued towards Smørbottinden.
I joined up with Anne just below the summit and entered a somewhat crowded summit. I noticed that no one was at the very high point, so this is where I headed immediately. I had no desire to talk to anyone else. Anne followed, and a couple of minutes later we stood on top of Smørbottind and had an AMAZING 360 deg. view.
Finally, it was time for the highlight of the day – the descent. And the descent was just – wow! Karma struggled in the deep snow, so the descent was a bit fragmented, having to wait for her. No sacrifice, though. She’s family.
Anne had a good day on skis too…
The mountain was a bit windy, so we had to descend quite a bit to find a place to have lunch.
After lunch, we returned to the trailhead, drove to Åndalsnes and checked into Hotel Grand Bellevue.
The hotel room was very nice and we had a superb view towards the most famous mountains in the region – Romsdalshorn. I’m so happy to say that I’ve been up the north wall and touched the summit…
I love these trips, being tourists in our own country. And especially that nice sensation of taking a shower after a perfect ski-trip, and THEN open a cold beer. The only sad part was the news that Karma’s mom Ella had suddenly died a couple of days ago. Only 8 years old. The phone call with Ella’s owner was sad, but it was still good to have talked about it.
The morale must be; life is fragile. Better live every hour as if it was the last…
Pictures from the trip:
