Easter diary, Apr 10 2017

Middagshaugen & Sukkertoppen

Peaks visited:

Peak Height PF Location
Middagshaugen 1264m 54m Nord-Fron
Sukkertoppen 1213m 10m Nord-Fron
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A very windy ski-trip. We had to abort for Karma’s sake

Continued from Easter vacation, day 2:

We had invited our friends Lena and Terje from Ulsteinvik to come and stay with us at our rented cabin on Kvamsfjellet, and they arrived on Sunday evening. We looked at the map to find a suitable trip for the next day, snow and weather conditions taken into consideration. We agreed that we should aim for Tjønnsæterfjellet (1411m), starting from the road near Rondvassbu. We had checked that were snowmobile tracks up the mountain, which was essential for the whole trip, given the soft snow.

We parked our cars at Bjørgebu and walked up the Sukkertoppraset road until we reached the snowscooter track.

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On our way up the forest

The ascent up the forest was nice. There was no wind and the track carried our weight.

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Looking forward to a nice ski-trip

Above the forest, we got Sukkertoppen and Middagshaugen in view. I had no idea that there was a Sukkertoppen (Sugar Loaf Top) peak in this region. We decided to visit this peak on the way down and focus on Tjønnsæterfjellet.

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Sukkertoppen ahead

The wind increased significantly as we passed Middagshaugen. I had chosen not to put the tricot on Karma, which I feared could be a mistake. Her fur was icing up pretty quickly.

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It’s getting chilly

We continued down to the saddle between Middagshaugen and Geitryggen and felt we had a good chance to make it all the way to Tjønnsæterfjellet.

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Geitryggen and Tjønnsæterfjellet (background) ahead of us

But when we reached point 1300m on Geitryggen, the wind got really bad and I saw that Karma was very unhappy and made the call we had to turn around. Everyone agreed that this was a good idea, as we didn’t know what the weather would  be like in the next hour.

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The decision to turn around was easy…

We returned to the saddle between Geitryggen and Middagshaugen and agreed that the wind was not strong enough to call for an “escape” down to Tjønnsætrin. It seemed that the wind speed was relative to the elevation, and we could safely return the way we came.

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At the junction. We decided to return the way we came

Back on Middagshaugen, we took the skins off the skis and had a nice run down to the foot of Sukkertoppen.

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At the foot of Sukkertoppen

The 10 vertical meters up to the top was … manageable …

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Anne on the way up Sukkertoppen

And at last – we could celebrate a top with a cairn…

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Anne, Lena, Karma & Terje on Sukkertoppen

The descent from Sukkertoppen was slightly challenging for those who had regular skis and boots for backcountry skiing. I had Scarpa T4 plastic boots, which made all the difference for having a FUN descent down the narrow snowmobile track.

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Descending from Sukkertoppen

The 11km trip took us 3h:10m, and the vertical ascent was approx. 550m

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Trip tracks

Pictures from the trip: 

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