A busy week and 6 new tops!
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| Haddalshornet | 611m | 103m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| Skolma | 636m | 483m | Hareid/ Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| Koppefjellet | 940m | 602m | Volda, Norway | WCP |
| Langfjellet | 989m | 119m | Rauma, Norway | |
| Orkja | 948m | 470m | Jølster, Norway | WCP |
Haddalshornet (611m), July 8 2019
Monday: The hiking week started in a traditional fashion, which means a local top, somewhere on Ytre Søre Sunnmøre, or the “outer rim” as I like to call it. I probably borrowed that name from Star Wars in some protest to the very inconvenient transport system whenever I travel. Which is usually either very early or very late. But to be fair, the transport system is quite good in the daytime. And, things may not really be much better elsewhere. I just like to think it is…
Anyway, the local top for the day was Haddalshornet on Hareidlandet island. I like this top much more now, that I’ve found routes from the Aursnes/Havåg side. I used to hike Blåtind/Haddalshornet from Indre Haddal, but it is no longer OK to park where I used to park.
It’s been a really long time since I did any sort of running, and … I don’t know if it’s the age, or… In any case, I decided to do a mixed jog/hike to this mountain and headed out from Aursnes. It’s a really nice trailhead. You can park alongside the road and there are no neighbors complaining about it.
It’s approx. 4,3km to the top, for the most part upwards, but it’s easy to jog until you get to the foot of the upper mountain. But that doesn’t mean that I was able to jog all the way. Far from it. The goal was however to make it to the top in less than one hour. And, since I did it in 48m:56s, I had met my goal, well knowing I would have killed that time 2-3 years ago.
For descent, I chose the route to Havåg. It’s a really nice route. I really recommend people to visit this side of the mountain! Then we followed the road past Selvåg, back to the trailhead. A good start of the week!
Trip statistics: 9,5km, 710 vertical meters, 1h:40m
Pictures (Iphone6) from the trip:
Skolma (636m), July 9 2019
Tuesday: After work in Ålesund, I took the ferry to Hareid and drove to Brandal. I parked the car there and walked the 2,2km to Kvitneset with Karma.
The goal was to ascend Skolma via Skolmedalen and we continued 1,1km along the path that runs all the way to Flø before we began the ascent up the very unfriendly route.
It takes a special kind of interest in odd routes to choose this one, and as such, you’re guaranteed to be all by yourself. It’s a steep and cumbersome route. But – technically easy. No scrambling other than holding onto the grass in a couple of places.
The clue is to follow the creek up to the point where it gets really steep, then curve around it on the right hand side in steep, grassy terrain. The trick is understanding where to get back into the main valley.
The next obstacle is a traversing ledge that takes you from the lower part to the upper part. Seek left, get on the ledge and let it lead you upwards. There is one place where you need to be somewhat careful, but other than that – no issues! From here on, it’s a walk in the park to the top.
Make sure you enjoy the views on your way up!
Coming to Skolma is always nice!
From Skolma, you have several options. You can hike down to Flø and follow the beach back to Kvitneset. Or, take the normal route down Ytredalen valley to Brandal, which we ended up doing. You can also hike to Signalhornet and Sneldelida and follow Indredalen back to Brandal. Either way, you’ll have a nice hike!
Trip statistics: 9,2km, 680 vertical meters, 2 hours
Pictures (Iphone6) from the trip:
Koppefjellet (940m), July 10 2019
Wednesday: After work, I drove to Ørsta and then up Åmdalen before taking the turn towards Volda. After 2km, I got on the toll road to Krøvelsætra.
After 2,8km, I parked at the Hestehornet trailhead and we followed this path upwards.
Just before 600m elevation, we left the Hestehornet path and aimed for the ridge towards Koppefjellet. We had a really steep ascent ahead of us – up to Vatnenipa. Normally, I would have been very skeptical about bringing the dog here, if it hadn’t been for the fact that we did this route in 2017. More precisely on Sep 4 – after visiting Anne at the local hospital, after breaking her back from a 4m fall during the “Over Stokk og Stein” competition in Ørsta on Sep 2 2017.
So, I knew that with a little care, I would get Karma up this route. If it had proven too difficult, there is an easier way further to the right!
The ridge leading to the steep part is also fun! I would strongly recommend this route to anyone who loves this type of terrain!
With that little extra care in one or two places, we got up Vatnenipa and had the main summit in view.
I believe this was my 6th visit to Koppefjellet. 4 trips from Aldalen and 2 trips from Krøvelsætra.
I was eager to know this mountain a little better than I already did, so I decided to do a round trip hike and return via the valley between Koppefjellet and Skarphornet. I just needed to find a way down the mountain and was prepared to end up at Vassteinsætra before I could proceed out the valley.
But, already after hiking 0,5km down the ridge I found a very nice, grassy slope that took us down to the valley, north of lake Vassteinvatnet. Shortly after, we found the path to Rotevassætra and after a little searching around, I found a path that connected Rotevassætra and Krøvelsætra. When I got there, I found 4 ladies having a really good afternoon, each enjoying a glass of wine!
Trip statistics: 7,6km, 670 vertical meters, 2h:10m
Pictures (Canon 80D+Iphone6) from the trip:
Langfjellet (989m), July 11 2019
Thursday: After work in Ålesund, I drove to Rauma to hike Langfjellet. It’s a top that I’ve just missed. I’ve done every other nearby top, but somehow, I’ve overlooked this one. I’ve been thinking about fixing this “problem” for years, but: a) it’s a bit too long drive on a normal afternoon, and b) I don’t want to spend a whole weekend day on this single top. But today, I decided to finally do something about it.
I left work around 3pm so that I could be on my way up the mountain just after 4pm. It’s only an hour’s drive from my work place, but it would take me close to 3 hours to get home later in the evening! The plan was to follow a path from Øver-Våge (near Vågstrandtunnelen) and up to Vågsskaret.
The problem was that I didn’t find ANY path at Øver-Våge and after wasting half an hour there, I decided to drive to Reistad and trust that I could drive to Bjørkeskaret. That road was not open to the public, and now I was really frustrated. I took another look at the map and noticed a forest road from Vågstrandtunnelen and up to Nervågsætra. At least I would get through the lower forest in a less painful way, and so I drove back and parked in front of the tunnel.
The time ws 5:15pm by the time we headed up the forest road and a few minutes later it ended! I took another look at the map and noticed that there were actually two roads. This one, and the correct one. Instead of hiking back down, I went through the forest and was really angry with myself for sloppy map reading.
Finally, we were on the road to Nervågsætra, and I had some hopes that I would find a forest path there. I didn’t. And we had only reached 290m elevation!
We now had some really cumbersome terrain ahead of us. Forest, bog and some small gorges. For Karma, this was like heaven. Everything was exciting.
We gradually made our way up the forest and I was so happy when we finally could get on Langfjellet’s north ridge. Not far now!
Man, it was nice to be back in these mountains. Straight ahead was Prosten and Svartevasstinden – the latter required a climb with ropes. And now, being here, I really wanted to climb the ridge from Langfjellet to Prosten. But, then I wouldn’t be back home before the next morning. Instead, I put it on my to-do list. Which is already long.
I wasn’t quite sure which of the Langfjellet humps was the highest, so I visited all of them. Apparently, it’s the one closest to Prosten. Marginally higher than the other ones.
I had some good views towards the tops near Åndalsnes and Trollstigen, and took a panorama picture that I decided to put names on when I got back home:
The time was now 7pm and I needed to begin the descent if were to be home before midnight. We pretty much stuck to a route parallel to our ascent route and followed the correct forest road from Nervågsætra. We were back at the car 8:21pm. I reached the 10pm ferry from Sulesund with very little margin and was back home just before 11pm. It was a long day, given that I get up at 5am every time I go to Ålesund…
Trip statistics: 11,9km, 1030 vertical meters, 3h:08m
Pictures (Canon 80D+Iphone) from the trip:
Orkja (948m), July 12 2019
Friday: After work, it was time to drive to Sogndal. As Anne would return late back from work, there was time for me and Karma to go on a short hike and I chose Orkja.
I’ve been to Orkja a couple of times before, but along a somewhat cumbersome route. The last time I was there, I noticed where the normal path starts, and today I wanted to check it out.
After passing Skei, we drove across Kjøsnesfjorden and took the road up to Bergsdal. 0,6km before the road fork near Dalevatnet, we found the “Orkja” signpost and parked nearby.
This was a route that I could like. Straight up! No bullshit…
The first part of the route would have been very wet and not so pleasant after rain, but the ground was dry and I was able to keep a good pace upwards.
The view towards Skei is always nice!
We reached the top in 30 minutes (500 vertical meters) which is not great in terms of time and distance, but great in the sense that you can hike a mountain close to 1000m in such a short time.
And as always, the views from the top are just great.
Upon descent, we ran all the way down and were back at the car 50 minutes after leaving it!
Trip statistics: 3,4km, 500 vertical meters, 50 minutes
Pictures (Iphone6) from the trip:
Jernhetta (1428m), Erterhaug (1354m), July 13 2019
Saturday: See separate trip report
Krunene (1066m), Blåfjellet (1067m), Høgefjellet (948m), July 14 2019
Sunday: See separate trip report
