Boring start, nice finish to the week…
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Leinebjørnen | 271m | 108m | Herøy, Norway | WCP |
| Aksla | 188m | 188m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
| Røddalshorn | 563m | 100m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Melshornet | 807m | 564m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP |
| Kiberget | 438m | 65m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
Utvikfjellet (600m), Feb 4 2019
Monday: Afternoon transport leg from Sogndal home to Sunnmøre – a good 3 hours drive. On Utvikfjellet, I reckoned it was time to walk the dog and I decided to do it on skating skis.
I haven’t skated since last Easter, and I’m no good at it either. But something inside in me figured I could skate as long as I wanted – uphill and without any wax.
That had (of course) to end in retreat and total embarrassment after only 1,8km and 100 vertical meters. I was dead meat. I’ll primarily blame the skis, which didn’t glide very well, but on the other hand – if I had mastered the technique better, and been in better skating form – I would have managed.
But – the dog got a walk up and a run back down, so it wasn’t for nothing…
Trip statistics: 3,4km, 100 vertical meters, 32 mins
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Huldrehornet (271m), Feb 5 2019
Tuesday: Not a great start to the hiking/skiing week! Monday’s trip ended in embarrassment and on Tuesday, the local trail group had a meeting. At 6pm on a gorgeous day! Impossible to do any good in the mountains, especially when I had to be in Ålesund this day. But when you’re all out of options, there is always Huldrehornet.
I got home around 4:15pm. 4:35pm, I had changed, driven to the Huldrehornet trailhead and was now on my way to Huldrehornet. Based on what I could see, I should really have been a totally different place…
But not a bad word spoken about Huldrehornet – except from that it’s a low mountain and a short hike. However, the views are pretty good…
I was back at the car 5:10pm, and had a whole 50 minutes to get back home, shower, have dinner and get to the meeting. And – I was on time!
Trip statistics: 2,7km, 250 vertical meters, 55 mins
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the hike:
Leinebjørnen (366m) , Feb 6 2019
Wednesday: A really bad weather day, and the definitive plan was to go hiking and stay LOW. I drove to Leinøya island to hike Leinebjørnen. It’s only a 230 vertical meter ascent, spread across 1,6km, but the hike turned out differently from what I had planned.
Karma and I DID go to Leinebjørnen, but instead of turning back around, we started hiking down the southwest ridge.
After a little while, I saw the “Støylen” signpost, pointing down into the forest. The descent looked steep and there was no trace of any path – with all the snow. A nice, small challenge.
After a cumbersome descent, in really deep snow (up to my knees and Karma swimming behind), we reached civilization down in Leine. The plan was now to follow the roads back to the trailhead.
But after 100 meters, I noticed tracks in the snow, heading back up the forest. I got curious and decided to follow these tracks. There was no snow in the (thick) forest and we soon found ourselves crawling under the trees. Very awkward!
I managed to get us back on track and the path took us back up to the southwest ridge. At almost 200m elevation, I chose to hike back up to Leinebjørnen and descent the ascent route. The bonus was of course the total vertical gain…
Trip statistics: 6km, 520 vertical meters, 1h:49m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Aksla (188m) , Feb 7 2019
Thursday: Back in Ålesund and the hiking week didn’t seem to improve, just yet. I had only energy to do a round trip hike on the Aksla mountain.
We started out from the usual place – Gangstøvika. We headed along Borgarnes vei until we took the trail up to Kråmyra and continued up to Rundskue – the highest point on the Aksla mountain.
Then we continued to Fjellstua and took the usual picture of Ålesund. If your’re following this blog closer than just “following”, you’ve seen this scenery a dozen times before. At least. But, it’s still nice…
Afterwards, the followed the forest trails back to Gangstøvika. A very uneventful hike…
Trip statistics: 7,5km, 400 vertical meters, 1h:46m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Røddalshorn (563m) , Feb 8 2019
Friday: Anne came up for the weekend and I invited her to a ski-trip to Røddalshorn on Gurskøya island.
We started out from Leikongsætra and followed the normal winter route upwards. The snow quality was really challenging, but as long as you’re going uphill, the snow is seldom a problem. The upside was that the weather was lovely, and we had a nice trip ahead of us…
A ski-trip to Røddalshorn is an easy way out when you don’t have the time or inspiration to do something else. Not that Røddalshorn isn’t a fine top, but it’s a fairly short trip.
And when we reached the top, we weren’t really sure if we looked forward to the run down. The light was kind of flat, and there was this icy crust that didn’t promise to carry our weight.
But we’re both good enough skiers to master these conditions, and the run down the mountain was not too bad. Fortunately, we were for the most part able to let the skis flow on top of the crust and managed to get back down without any fall or injuries.
Trip statistics: 4,4km, 400m vertical meters, 1h:17m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Melshornet (807m), Feb 9 2019
Saturday: Anne wasn’t keen on going skiing today, so she offered to look after Karma while I went on a solo-trip. As I didn’t want to stay away too long, I decided to go to Melshornet in Ørsta/Volda.
The weather wasn’t great, but I knew that the snow was top quality. I started out from my usual trailhead – Helgatun – and had a smooth and easy climb up the mountain.
The nice thing about this route is that you’re very often in shelter for the bad weather, most of the way. But there’s no hiding once you’re on the summit.
Fortunately, today wasn’t all bad and I could follow my usual routines without any stress attached to it.
And then there was the descent – OMG – it was nice. I’m not a fast skier. I am uncomfortable when the skis runs too fast, but I reached 51km/h and realized that: a) I was quite happy with the speed and b) the skis would just not run any faster. They’ve got their fair share of scratches underneath. And – it’s just mind-boggling to think about professional skiers going twice that speed. And more…
Trip statistics: 6,3km, 590 vertical meters, 1h:12m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Huldrehornet & camping out (271m) , Feb 9-10 2019
Saturday/Sunday: Saturday evening was something we had looked forward to. The plan was to camp out in the Huldrehornet forest with our friends Lena and Terje. There would be no tents, so we had brought tarps to keep the wind, snow and rain out – whatever the night had in store for us.
It was raining light when we arrived at the camp, but the campsite had some infrastructure in terms from being a scout camp. Which meant that after some minor repair work, we could stretch the tarps above us, and even on three sides. But if the bad weather came in from the west, would be in – disharmony…
After the tarps were in place, we got the campfire started. It had stopped raining, which was nothing short of perfect!
Dinner was “grilled sausages and flat potato bread”. Yum!
After enoying some wine, we were ready to tuck in for the night. I fell asleep rather quickly, but woke up very early in the morning. I had absolutely no idea what time it was, and it was very nice to not care whatsoever.
Eventually, we all awoke and as we hadn’t brought breakfast, we decided to break camp, hike to the top of Huldrehornet and then head home for our separate breakfasts.
This was a really nice twist to Saturday night dinner that we’ll soon repeat!
Trip statistics: 2,2km, 250 vertical meters
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Kiberget (438m) , Feb 10 2019
Sunday: After the Huldrehornet hike and breakfast, it was time to figure out where to go. The weather was not good at all, and downright evil in higher ground. I suggested Kiberget, as I hadn’t been there for many, many years, Anne hadn’t been there yet, and last but not least – it wasn’t a high mountain.
We parked at Gamleeidet and followed the mountain trail past the waterworks. Given the weather, I wasn’t too sure about how far we would go. Anne and I were of course properly dressed, but even with the suit, Karma was exposed to the strong wind and snow/hail.
The shower passed, and a window for a “push to the top” presented itself and we went for it. The snow conditions were terrible. Icy crust all the way.
After we reached Kiberget, I didn’t want to return the same way (boring), and suggested that we continued across Nevstadnipa (where the cool trees are) and find a way down from there. Anne concurred.
You can’t really visit Kiberget without visiting the cool trees. The downside was that the wind was just terrible there and we just wanted to get off the mountain.
So we just headed down the forest, continuously trying to pick the best route. The descent was quite strenuous, given the difficult snow conditions.
But, eventually we made it down to the valley and followed the trail alongside the main road back to the car. It was an – interesting – trip…
Trip statistics: 7,6km, 300 vertical meters, 2h:08m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the hike:
