All sorts of weather…

Peaks visited:
Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
Tverrbotshornet | 752m | 354m | Haram, Norway | WCP |
Storehanen | 493m | 67m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Meraftafjellet | 578m | 578m | Skodje, Norway | WCP |
Styggestigen | 501m | 43m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
Breidfjellet | 535m | 72m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
Bustegane | 1146m | 136m | Stranda, Norway |
Tverrbotshornet (752m), May 21 2019

Tuesday: After work in Ålesund, I ended up driving along Ellingsøya, a) escaping from the traffic in Ålesund and b) with no particular place to go. Well, it was clear that I would end up on the Haram tops, but which one?
At Eidsvik, I had finally made up my mind. I would hike Tverrbotshornet from Øvre Gryta. Both places I’ve been to in the past, but I’ve never hiked Tverrbotshornet from Øvre Gryta. The map indicated that there was a path across “Myra” and up to the pass between Skålbotsheia and Tverrbotshornet. That’s where I would go, and I was happy I finally had a plan.
I drove up to Øvre Gryta, parked by the greenhouses and then we followed the tractor road towards lake Store Grytavatnet.

After a while, Hildrehesten came into view and I remembered coming down this way – some 10 years ago.

Soon, I had Tverrbotshornet in view, but I couldn’t see any trace of a path across the “swamp”.

But soon after leaving the tractor road, we came across something that looked like a path, but which quickly turned into a deer track – heading towards the forest. As a deer track is better than no track at all, I decided to follow it. It was a mistake. The forest section was not nice.

When we finally got out of the forest, we had a huge boulder field ahead us. And I was SO delighted. I’ll take rock over anything, anytime!

And finally we reached the top – 1h:09m after heading out. It’s fair to conclude that if you want to reach this top, then follow the mountain service road to Gamlemsveten and take the path up to Tverrbotshornet.

We had some nice views, though. Most of the Haram mountains are generous in that respect.

Upon descent, we followed the normal route along the southwest ridge before aiming for Myra (the swamp) along a parallel route. But without any forest…

I don’t think I’ll remember this hike one year from now…
Trip statistics: 7,6km, 730 vertical meters, 2h:02m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Storehanen (493m), May 22 2019

Wednesday: Today, I had an ambition to hike Hidsegga from Moltu and inspect the steep gullys on the north side. But when I got to Moltu, it started raining and sea fog moved in, at high speed.

So, I decided to do a round trip hike across Storehanen instead.

I enjoy the direct route to the top. It’s steep and strenuous. Just the way I like it.

When we reached the top, the sea fog was just minutes away and it rolled over us on the way down.

A short, and quite uneventful hike. But at least I got to walk the dog!
Trip statistics: 3,9km, 330 vertical meters, 55 minutes
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Meraftafjellet (578m), May 23 2019

Thursday: Another day in Ålesund, and after work I had planned to work Meraftafjellet (highest top on Uksenøya island) with my colleague Fredrik.
We left one car at Magerholm and drove to the forest road just before Gudmundset. The plan was to do a hike across Meraftafjellet and Styggestigen. I looked forward to that, as I hadn’t been to Styggestigen before.

We left the forest road and got on the forest path. Fredrik had never been to this mountain, and enjoyed the walk up the forest ridge.

Eventually, we climbed above the forest and were spoiled with great views around Storfjorden.

Of course, I had to share my stories from my trips up here in really bad weather (hail storms), and how exposed one is on the mountain plateau. But today, I would be very surprised if we ran into hail storms.

Then we reached the top and had a short stay before moving on.

Next stop was Styggestigen – a less prominent top that I hadn’t been to before. We both felt it was quite a distance to get there, but all of a sudden – it felt close.

The discussion was now how to get off this ridge which clearly got more and more steep the closer to Magerholm we got. Because we could not take for granted that there was a path all the way. But there was indeed a path, albeit vague, that took us down in the direction of Magerholmsætra, and then we got on a old tractor road that we could follow to the main tractor road – heading to Magerholm.

Altogether a very nice hike. The only downside was that Styggestigen had a primary factor LESS than 50m…
Trip statistics: 8,2km, 600 vertical meters, 2h:21m
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Breidfjellet (535m), May 24 2019

Friday: Fog and rain and I had very little inspiration to go hiking. But, the dog needs to be walked so I pulled myself together and drove to Gåsneset on Hareidlandet island to hike Roppehornet.
And plan A was Roppehornet until I was 300m south of the top of Roppehornet.

But in the pass I continued up the ridge towards Breidfjellet.

Now that I was all wet, I considered hiking a much longer route but I started to get a little cold and decided to call it a day. So we went down to Litlevatnet, followed Ulsteindalen valley down and returned to Gåsneset via a forest path and the main road.

Trip statistics: 10,5km, 560 vertical meters, 2h:09m
Bustegane (1024m), May 25 2019

Saturday: The weather was not good, but I was all set on getting my first new 2019 pf100 top in my home county Møre and Romsdal. And that top would be Bustegane above Hellesylt.
Now that I had completed all the main tops on both sides of the Honndalen valley, it was only natural to continue in the Hellesylt region. And Bustegane was the next top on my list. It involved a bit of driving – 1,5 hours each way.
I drove up to the farm in Frøysadalen and bothered a couple of very senior citizens that probably don’t get a visit too often. But they were kind to the stranger and shared their local knowledge with me. Afterwards, I drove back down to the road junction by the river and parked there.

Then we followed the road up on the south side of the river. The road turned into a forest path after a while, and we were still hiking along the river.

The fog was thick and I was mentally prepared to find my way to the top without seeing anything at all. But then all of a sudden, the mountain appeared up to my left.

I really struggled with the perception of direction. As I was heading upwards, I was convinced that I would continue in the same direction, even if I knew that I would have to change my direction from west to south. This is not the first time my head doesn’t cooperate in fog, but eventually, after HARD brain work, I was able to align the map with my perception of the terrain.

It helped massively to see the route upwards. Now, I could stay clear of the steep part with ease. And, I was surprised about how much snow there was left on the mountain.

After a steep, but easy hike up the ridge, we reached the top.

It was tempting to continue towards Svartefjellet, which was just 3km to the south/southeast. But, it had started to snow (!) and I decided that I would come back for Svartefellet on a better weather day.

So, we returned the way we came, catching a glimpse of Klovningsnibba along the way – most likely my next top in this region.

Trip statistics: 6,6km, 780 vertical meters, 2 hours
Pictures (Canon 80D) from the trip:
Sørgulen mountains, May 26 2019
Sunday: See separate trip report