Middagshaugen & Sukkertoppen
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location |
| Middagshaugen | 1264m | 54m | Nord-Fron |
| Sukkertoppen | 1213m | 10m | Nord-Fron |
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.
The ascent up the forest was nice. There was no wind and the track carried our weight.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Back on Middagshaugen, we took the skins off the skis and had a nice run down to the foot of Sukkertoppen.
The 10 vertical meters up to the top was … manageable …
And at last – we could celebrate a top with a cairn…
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.
The 11km trip took us 3h:10m, and the vertical ascent was approx. 550m
Pictures from the trip:
