Not a week for the memory album…

Peaks visited:
Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
Rjåhornet | 598m | 105m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Storehanen | 493m | 67m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Vardaheii | 900m | 30m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP |
Helebrandseggi | 920m | 90m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP |
Rjåhornet (600m), Sep 10 2018

Monday: Rjåhornet on a Monday… Huge surprise.
My hiking notes said this was “a windy hike”. Which hardly comes as a surprise here on the coast line of Norway. I’ll take this opportunity to say it out loud: I *hate* the wind. Totally fed up with it…

I grew up in and around Oslo. There’s no real weather there. Well, that’s perhaps an exaggeration. Then I moved to Bergen which offered consecutive rain for 7 years. Then I moved to the Ålesund region which offered consecutive wind for 12 years. The conclusion should be that I would miss Oslo. But heck, no!
But if I just could just get a little less wind and rain…?

Trip statistics: 6,5km, 600 vertical meters, 1h:21m
Huldrehornet (271m), Sep 11 2018

Tuesday: Today, I took on the task to clean up the path from Djupvikvatnet to the meadow between Rjåhornet and Huldrehornet. The path was overgrown and not fun to walk at all. Being part of the voluntary local trail group, someone just has to step up and do the heavy work. And cleaning up this path was definitely heavy work. Each and every bush got dragged up by its root. I could do perhaps 50m on a good afternoon.
Afterwards, the reward was to hike across Huldrehornet before returning home with a tired body.

Trip statistics: 3,4km, 250 vertical meters, 1h:13m
Huldrehornet (271m), Sep 12 2018

Wednesday: Back in the Huldrehornet forest, picking up the trail work where I left off the day before.
This time, we hiked across Djupvikhaugen before starting up the trail work.

When it was time to hike across Huldrehornet, I decided to leave the path and go up the easiest of the scrambling routes, one I figured Karma would handle well. It was huge fun watching her spin up and cling on to the rock.

The weather was not nice, and then it’s perfect to spend the time in the forest, cleaning up the trail…

Trip statistics: 4,7km 330 vertical meters, 2h:10m
Storehanen (496m), Sep 13 2018

Thursday: The weather was of the sort where going outdoors was just plain stupid. Nevertheless, I headed to Moltustranda to visit Storehanen, on behalf of the local trail group. We had to figure out if we needed extra signposts up there.

We have a friendly “beef” going on with the Moltu hiking group, as we don’t agree on the name of the high point. On the map, the high point is marked as “Storehanen”, 493,4m”. Moltu calls this Blåfjellet. 0,5km to the north, there is a point that the maps call Moltuhanen – approx. 451m. Moltu calls this point “Storehanen 471m“. And whatever is the truth about the name, the height is plain wrong, whether it refers to where the signpost stands, or the high point. Ah, it was felt good to get it “on paper”…

It wasn’t raining, it was *pouring*. And it was windy as heck, too. It was NOT a pleasant hike!

I was SO happy when we returned to the car. And yet, I decided to drive to the Huldrehornet forest again and pick up the trail work from yesterday.
Trip statistics: 4,1km, 330 vertical meters, 45 mins
Pictures from the hike:
Fjordstien, Sogndal, Sep 14 2018

Friday: I drove to Sogndal for the weekend, and got sick during the 3 hour drive. It was hard to say what it was. There was nausea and fatigue, and I was definitely not up for any hiking this afternoon.
So we (Anne, Karma and I) ended up with a relaxed hike along the new “Fjordstien” trail in Sogndal.

The children’s climbing wall saved the day…

Trip statistics: 4km, 50 vertical meters, 1 hour
Pictures from the walk:
Rubbeskallen, Sogndal, Sep 15 2018

Saturday: The overall shape was rotten. Fever and stuff. Worse than the day before.
Nevertheless, I pulled myself together just enough to be able to join Anne and Karma for a walk from Sogndal and to the Rubbeskallen tunnel – and back.
And once back home, I collapsed…
Trip statistics: 5,1km, 40 vertical meters, 1h:14m
Pictures from the walk:
Helebrandseggi (920m), Sep 16 2018

Sunday: The day that “saved the week“. Finally, something that resembled a proper hike.
The general form and shape had improved, but it was quite clear that I should take it easy. As I hadn’t been to Vardaheii before, I suggested to Anne we could go there. If I felt up to it, it was natural to proceed across Helebrandseggi and take a different route down.
We drove to Dalåker at parked by the gate that blocked the forest road from further driving. The path to Vardaheii started just around the next bend. I *love* the Kaupanger pine forests…

We had a nice walk up the forest and eventually reached the Vardaheii mailbox, which stated we were 845m above sea level. How odd, as my GPS read 905m! Even more odd, we were looking *down* on the 880,1m lake…

Anne had some business to attend to, and headed towards lake Grønamyrvatnet to fill up a bottle of water. She had been contacted by a woman – a painter – who wanted to paint with water from Norwegian lakes. She had read the article from Anestølsvatnet where Anne had photographed some strange looking circles. The woman asked for water from that lake, and Anne sent the water and promised to send more. Like, from Grønamyrvatnet.

Meanwhile, I went across the summit plateau, trying to locate the high point. I found it on the north side of lake 880,1m and the high point is most likely 900m. At least, the map has a 900,2m point there.

I joined Anne by the lake and after securing “holy water” we proceeded up to Helebrandseggi.

The plan was to continue north to Vatnasete and follow the forest road back to the Dalåker parking. But for some reason, we decided to head down something that looked like a promising valley, but turned out to be a pure nightmare of a boulder field where each and every rock seemed to move upon contact.

Eventually, we reached the forest road, without any injuries…
Trip statistics: 8,7km, 620 vertical meters, 3 hours
Pictures from the walk: