Just another week with a lot of bad weather…
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| Skafjellet | 573m | 82m | Hareid, Norway | WCP |
| Røyrafjellet | 123m | 100m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| Rjåhornet | 421m | 68m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Lidaveten | 592m | 439m | Volda, Norway | WCP |
| Djupvikhaugen | 98m | 29m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | |
| Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Skafjellet (573m), Mar 23 2020
Monday: Another week in my home office. I’m not able to fully take in what’s going on in the world. I just have to focus on having a life as close to normal as possible. I miss my girlfriend. Other than that, it’s going just fine. I stay at home, don’t meet anyone and visit the grocery store as infrequent as possible. Luckily, I have a lot of things to do at work, so the days are flying by.
Today, the wind was tremendously strong, and it didn’t make much sense to go above the forest. Still, I drove to Hareid after work – aiming for Skafjellet. I knew that this would be a windy place even on a good day, but at least I would see how far we would get.
We started out from Geilane and followed a tractor road that was new to me. It was nice to be in the shelter from the winds…
Above the forest road, we followed a forest path that I hadn’t been on before either. New experiences give me energy, which was low after work.
The weather was quite OK, and it would have been a really nice day if it hadn’t been for the wind. The forecast had stated “near gale” on the local mountain tops, but they don’t seem to do the take into consideration that we are on the coastline.
It was cumbersome to get from the forest and onto the mountain. The snow was soft and deep, but I hoped for more firm snow higher up. Which we got…
The wind increased for every 50m elevation we rose. When we reached the top, the wind was close to horrendous. Only a couple of digits separated us from being fairly safe to risk being blown off the mountain. Which – wouldn’t be a good thing in these times when the health services have other things on their mind. But I’m not plain stupid and would never have gone all the way if I thought that we wouldn’t be safe. Normally, the dog poses for the camera but it was little bit too windy for Karma today….
Only 100 meters away from the cairn, the wind was back to just “strong” again and Karma was OK again.
We took a different route back down, which gave us a nice round trip hike.
Trip statistics: 5,8km, 550 vertical meters, 1h:41m
Røyrafjellet (123m), Mar 24 2020
Tuesday: This was a “red” day in my calendar. “Red” as in – my body was going into this weird state when it feels like I’m sick, but without being sick. I had to take a nap after work and I was just not able to get back up until my girlfriend called me. After talking for a while, I got more energy and decided to take the dog for a walk on Røyrafjellet on Dimnøya island. It was a low mountain, but it was raining, the wind was still strong and I felt like shit.
I drove to Ertesvåg and we hiked up the top while I was trying to gather some strengths. What I needed was to go somewhere I’ve never been before. But where? I felt like I’ve been all over my local region. Which isn’t far away from the thruth.
But then I discovered a small tip of the island that I knew I hadn’t been to yet. And the energy came flowing…
Unfortunately, this “tip” didn’t have a map name – just a point 15m above sea level. I wondered if it was actually an islet or if it was always a part of the main island. In any case, I didn’t have too much time on my hands. We reached “the top” 6:32pm and I knew that I would begin to get dark around 7pm. At least this was the case one or two weeks ago. But, at least enough time to get back to the car.
And then Karma vanished…
What? She was next to me 30 seconds ago. I ran back and forth for five minutes, calling her name. I feared she had fallen into a hole or into the sea. And she would not bark, no matter what problem she got herself into. But no dog was to be seen. I was pretty desperate now, but realized that I would have to get back to the car before dark, drive home, get some flashlights and get back. But then, Karma suddenly appeared behind me, feeling VERY guilty and constantly licking her mouth. Oh, so she had been feeding on something. A dead bird or something. I was NOT HAPPY. I gave her a “hairdryer” speech and was done with it.
When we were almost back at the car, I realized that we still had 15-20 minutes of daylight left and aimed for the 41m high Ertesvåghaugen hump. Just to stretch the walk as far as possible. Eventually, it was time to return back home. Very happy that I was able to pull myself out of bed and go on this hike!
Trip statistics: 5,4km, 265 vertical meters, 1h:17m
Rjåhornet (600m), Mar 25 2020
Wednesday: Energy level at ~50% during my working day at home. And it didn’t help that there seemed to be a small storm outside. The weather was awful! I needed to take a rest after work, but I wasn’t nearly so fatigued as yesterday afternoon. So I got up and decided to go to Leikong and check out some paths that I recently became aware of, but hadn’t hiked yet. That alone drove up the energy level, and furthermore – the storm had passed. The optimal scenario was that I eventually ended up on Rjåhornet.
I parked by the church and followed the path marked “Bakkehammaren“. I discovered this viewpoint last week, coming down from Rjåhornet. Now I wanted to follow the normal path up to this waypoint. It was really nice to be on a new path on a mountain that I’d visited 285 times in the past. After a little while, we passed some buildings that I had no idea existed.
When we reached Bakkehammaren, I was determined to continue to Rjåhornet. The shape and form was quite OK. And – it wasn’t raining!
To keep the energy level “high”, I decided to continue off-trail, across terrain I’ve not been in before.
Eventually, we ended up on Bakkahornet and stuck with off-trail terrain until we reached the top.
There was fog on top, but it seemed like it would be clearing up soon, so I decided to kill some time with “graffiti“.
And then the fog disappeared…
Back at the car, I could see some really nice colors on the sky, so I drove up the hill to take a picture of Røddalshorn.
But it seemed like the *really nice* colors were on the other side of the mountain, so I then drove to Myrvågneset and got this picture before darkness wiped out the colors. What a nice end to the hike! From a stormy morning to this! Makes it easier to have faith in a better tomorrow. For ALL of us…
Trip statistics: 6km, 620 vertical meters, 2 hours
Lidaveten (592m), Mar 26 2020
Thursday: Day 2 on a new diet, gluten free. I will try out anything to get to the bottom of a problem that has riddled me since for some time now. I felt amazingly good in the daytime, and thought I was onto something.
From my home office, I could see blue sky all day and I looked forward to go out for the afternoon hike. But when I opened the front door, it was pouring down. What the actual …??
It turned out to be rain showers, which meant that there would be sunshine somewhere. And based on what I could see, I should drive east. I decided to go to Lidaveten if it wasn’t raining there.
When I got to Berkneset, it wasn’t raining and soon we were on our way up Lidaveten.
To my despair, I had absolutely no energy. Was there no energy in my new diet or was I on the wrong track? Nothing to be done about that now, so I went on autopilot up the forest and hoped that we wouldn’t have to deal with too much snow. On the upside, the horizon offered some really nice views!
We reached snow at around 400m elevation, and it was soft as butter. I chose to put the gaiters on and we moved on.
I was so happy when we finally reached the top. No more uphill!
It was surreal to watch the snowy mountains, offering fantastic skiing under normal circumstances. But skiers are now considered “renegades” because of the Covid-19 situation. But, rescuing injured, lost or stuck skiers on a mountain is of course the lowest of priorities as people are dying by the numbers.
And what about myself, hiking up to a top, almost 600m high? Is this compatible with the general recommendation “stay home, but it’s OK to go for a walk“. Well – to me, this is a walk. It’s just uphill instead of flat terrain. Is there such a huge difference? I’m not new to this.
I reckon that the risk of me getting injured on a mountain like this is roughly the same as anyone else cutting themselves with the kitchen knife. Or having a bike accident. In any case, it’s my darn responsibility to get back home safe and sound and that’s the determining factor when choosing walks these days.
We took the trail down to Eideim, which had a lot more snow than the southwest ridge we came up. I met a couple of other hikers. We had a short chat, with the necessary safety distance.
The horizon was still putting up a show, and I had a good day with the camera. But in the evening, I was dead tired and really curious about how the day after would be like…
Trip statistics: 6,4km, 600 vertical meters, 2h:04m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Djupvikhaugen (98m), Mar 27 2020
Friday: There was something in my chest. It wasn’t a new thing but more noticeable now. I decided to slow down the hiking part in the upcoming weekend and settled for an easy hike from home to Djupvikhaugen.
We walked off-trail on the east side of lake Djupvikvatnet, which was not easy terrain after rain. Still, I was able to keep the pulse fairly low.
The local hiking group would like to see a trail on this side of the lake, but there is an issue with some birds nesting here. And I don’t want to be in the driver’s seat if these birds are scared away.
We got to the top of Djupvikhaugen and I was more than happy with this activity for the day.
Trip statistics: 5,7km, 180 vertical meters, 1h:10m
Djupvikhaugen (98m), Rambjøra (132m), Mar 28 2020
Saturday: And then came the snow! Again! Which was OK, as I had planned to work at least half the day. But first, I took Karma on an early morning walk in the neighbourhood.
At lunch, I was more or less finished with work and took the dog for another walk – this time to Djupvikhaugen.
My form dropped significantly as the day progressed, and I kept scratching my head about what was going on. Had I become a new number in the Corona statistics? It was confusing as I had none of the symptoms that I associated with the virus. No running nose, no headache and no coughing. No problems with breathing. Just the same “thing” as had been riddled me since December. But the pain in my chest was more noticeable now. In any case, it was best to live my life as if I had the virus. My fridge was full and there was no reason to go to any store.
But there was enough “juice” left to do a hike across Rambjøra. I got some energy about the notion of finding some place that I hadn’t visited before.
From Rambjøra, we followed the path in the direction of Dragsundet.
Just before we reached the road, we went off-trail, negotiated a fence and a little cumbersome terrain before we reached the shore. We could now see Dragsundbrua bridge from a new angle.
We then went over to some fun terrain near the islet Jonseholmen.
And when I realized that I had never been ON Jonseholmen, we had to visit the high point – stunningly 10m above sea level.
Trip statistics (total for the day): 12,8km, 410 vertical meters
Huldrehornet (271m), Djupvikhaugen (98m), Mar 29 2020
Sunday: Today, I felt better and took a log at my food log. I noticed that I had dairy products on Friday and Saturday. Could that be the reason for the sudden “collapse” of the shape and form? So, for the next week, the menu would be free of gluten and without dairy products. It looked forward to see how next week would be like.
It was a comfort that the weather was ROTTEN on a weekend when I decided to slow down a little. It was snowing sideways and I decided to walk from home and up to Huldrehornet.
As we passed Dyrkyrkja, we were already high enough to feel the ugly weather. It was not too bad, but my hands were cold enough already. My woolen gloves were soaking wet and didn’t stop the wind.
Eventually, we reached Huldrehornet and it was torture to spend more than a minute on top.
We continued across the mountain, and descended on the south side.
I figured we could hike across Djupvikhaugen before returning home.
On Djupvikhaugen, it cleared up a bit and I decided to finish the walk by visiting a place I’ve never been before – Makrellvågen.
Makrellvågen didn’t offer nice terrain for hiking, so my plan was just to get down the sea and get away.
We returned home dripping wet, and I hope that my boots and clothes will dry up before Tuesday….
Trip statistics: 8,3km, 490 vertical meters, 2h:15m
