Final week before Easter in Sogndal
Peaks visited:
| Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| Leinehornet | 366m | 366m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Leinebjørnen | 271m | 108m | Herøy, Norway | WCP |
| Selsteinen | 598m | 90m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Storehanen | 493m | 67m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Storehornet | 278m | 78m | Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Nupen (Nupatinden) | 242m | 69m | Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Øyrahornet | 417m | 42m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| Høgskjerva | 317m | 9m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| Skeidshornet | 311m | 13m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| Osberget | 134m | 36m | Ulstein, Norway | |
| Skardsbøfjellet | 700m | 0 | Sogndal, Norway | WCP |
| Orrabruhaugen | 295m | 25m | Sogndal, Norway | |
| Kongaberget | 160m | 0m | Sogndal, Norway |
Leinehornet (366m), Leinebjørnen (271m), Mar 30 2020
Monday: I could see blue sky through my window, from when I started to work at 8 and until I finished around 5pm. When I walked out my front door to take the dog for a walk, it just started snowing.
This would normally be a “downer”. But this is not a normal time. In many countries now, going into the nature is either socially unacceptable or simply forbidden. We’re not there now, and I hope we’ll never be.
Social distancing is the very least of problems where I live, and the drive to any given trailhead is less than 20 minutes. The drive is of course the real problem. I could collide, and the health services will have to deal with me, in addition to everything else they have to deal with. So it won’t be me causing the accident. That’s for certain.
So, the snow didn’t upset me at all and I decided to drive to Leinøya to walk across Leinehornet and Leinebjørnen. I found a new starting point, which was a bonus. And after a while on new paths, we joined one of the regular paths up the mountain.
There are lots of people hiking the same mountains, on the same trails. But people follow the guidelines and step off the trail, with a good distance. Same ol’, same ol’, except for the distance.
Leinehornet summit was a cold and windy place to be at. The wind speed was such that the snow could not be captured at 1/80.
And so we moved on, towards Sollida and Leinebjørnen.
The paths were wet and boggy, but I was having a great time. Now that I’m staying away from dairy products, my shape and form has improved greatly. I can only hope it stays that way!
Eventually we reached Leinebjørnen, and I had to think about how to get back to the car. I knew that there was a route from Leinebjørnen and into the valley below. Perhaps I could find it?
I found the path and the path took me all the way into the valley, where I found another path that took me down to civilization and my car. A nice round trip hike!
Trip statistics: 6,5km, 550 vertical meters, 1h:50m
Selsteinen (598m), Storehanen (493m), Mar 31 2020
Tuesday: I hadn’t been in Moltudalen so far this year, and figured it was high time. The weather had been simply awful all day, but it was clearing up in the afternoon. Clearing up is perhaps an overstatement, as the mountains were fogged in. But at least it had stopped raining!
My primary goal was Selsteinen, with Storehanen as an optional round trip hike. The fog didn’t bother me a bit. I know these mountains inside and out.
The mountain path had snow and was all wet and boggy. So I decided to go off-trail, up a steep section.
The ascent was hard work, but eventually we reached the top. And it came as no surprise that it was quite windy up there.
Descending on snow was nice, as it for the most part carried my weight.
The hike over to Storehanen seemed endless, although it was just 1km of walking from the foot of Selsteinen and to the top of Storehanen. The locals call this top Blåfjellet. For whatever reason…
Then we descended to Moltuhanen, which the locals call Storehanen. The signpost says 471m, which is a bit silly, as it’s only 430m.
From Moltuhanen, there are two routes down to Kvia. One is very steep and the other is steep, but not THAT steep. I chose the latter, as the wet snow on the rocks made this a much harder descent than it normally is.
Before reaching Kvia, we took the newly marked route they call “Blåfjellstien“, which took us back to the parking.
Trip statistics: 6,2km, 470 vertical meters, 1h:42m
Storehornet (278m), Nupatinden (242m), Apr 1 2020
Wednesday: The weather earlier today was really, really awful. I even delayed taking the dog outisde at lunch because of the winds and the pouring rain. But in the afternoon, the winds calmed down and it stopped raining. And I decided to repeat a route I did back in 2014 with my girlfriend Anne and Bjørn Skoge.
I drove towards Larsnes and parked at Drageskaret. Then we followed the path towards Storehornet.
Life on Storehornet was all good. It was a little bit windy, but that’s the coastline in a nutshell.
Then we continued towards Nupen, aka Nupatinden.
I really appreciated the blue sky, because I knew it wouldn’t last.
And it didn’t…
When we got to Nupen, it was twice as windy as on Storehornet and I was not able to control every step I made. Which wasn’t too good, as I had planned a steep descent down to the shore. Eventually, I decided to cancel my plan and go for a safer route instead.
The wind aside, being out here and watch the showers and rays of sunshine at the same time was just beautiful.
Halfway down the mountain, I stopped to take a closer look at Gjøna. I suddenly remembered my trip up the middle couloir, topping it out just before the summit. I need to repeat this route soon…
And eventually, we were down by the shore saw the route ahead. The first step was to get to the houses. Then, we had to follow the road up to the main road, and then get back up to Drageskaret. In other words, 5km to go…
But I do enjoy walking a nice shoreline and we were in the lee side of the wind.
Eventually, we reached the road at Sandvik, and Nupatinden now seemed quite distant.
Very happy about doing this walk again, 6 years later!
Trip statistics: 9,5km, 520 vertical meters, 2h:30m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone8) seen from the trip:
Øyrahornet (417m), Apr 2 2020
Thursday: Another day with unpredictable weather. In one second, the sky is as blue as it can get and in the next, it feels like the most horrible winter.
So, for this afternoon hike I was looking for a nearby top with a good “exit plan“. Øyrahornet above Tjørvåg is that kind of top.
I left home immediately after a long snow shower and when I got through the Aurvåg tunnel, the weather was totally different. There was suddenly no snow on the road and Øyrahornet seemed very inviting.
Once above the forest, the strong winds sat in. They were not so strong that I got pushed around, but I ascended the mountain a bit “skewed” and looked forward to reaching the lee side. There is of course more snow there, but still…
Then we moved from a perfectly calm place and to a furious top…
The plan was to descent to the north, but the wind forced us to descend on the lee side – southeast.
Here, we reached a juniper bush nightmare that took a world crisis to make me appreciate being here.
Eventually, we reached the forest just as a new snow/hail shower came along.
Inside the forest, I discovered a path that I didn’t know about. Cool!
The shower passed and we reached Tjørvåg with blue sky. That would however not last for very long…
Trip statistics: 4,7km, 460 vertical meters, 1h:33m
Høgskjerva (317m), Skeidshornet (311m), Osberget (134m), Apr 3 2020
Friday: The weather was still unstable and I drove to Ulsteinvik to hike in the outskirts of the forest, with an “exit plan” at hand.
I parked at Bugardsmyrane and we followed the forest path towards Høgskjerva. Being inside the forest was plain nice.
Being above the forest was a little more windy and foggy…
We continued to the Vikeskardet pass and noticed that another major show shower was coming in from the ocean.
Quick “math” suggested that we would reach the forest before the shower came along. The “math” wasn’t too bad, as we were 20 meters away from the forest when the shower came up on us.
Being inside the forest was really nice. So totally different from the “world outside”
Eventually, we reached civilization at Skeide and the shower had passed. The plan was now to ascend Osberget.
Once on Osberget, it felt like the day couldn’t have been nicer…
We took another loop on Osberget before returning to Bugardsmyrane. All in all, a very nice round trip hike!
Trip statistics: 8,5km, 510 vertical meters, 2h:46m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone8) seen from the trip:
To Sogndal, Apr 4 2020
Saturday: Finally, I would get to see my girlfriend again. I hadn’t seen her since March 9th, basically because she had the Corona virus and was in quarantine. But now she was “officially well again”, although she didn’t quite feel as her normal self yet.
But I sure picked the wrong day to leave Sunnmøre…
Driving down Utvikfjellet, I had to stop for a picture of Eggjanibba. It’s such an awesome peak…
Skardsbøfjellet (700m), Apr 4 2020
Saturday: Eventually, I reached Sogndal and it was very nice to have our small family reunited. And, we decided to take a walk up the Skardsbøfjellet road – leading up to the power plant.
Unfortunately, the snow was quite deep and we followed tractor tracks up to Flugheimshaugen where we came up with Plan B.
We returned to the car, Anne and Karma went on foot back home while I went back up the mountain – now with skis on.
I was not feeling so great. It felt like as if I had a “claw” in my chest and I wondered if I actually had the Corona virus. But I had no other symptoms and that “claw” had been in my chest for several weeks. I just had to take it slow and easy up the mountain.
I had some problems with my short skins, which had very little glue left. Hence, I had to work extra hard to get up. Not ideal, as I really needed to use as little energy as possible.
Eventually, I reached the power plant and looked very much forward to the descent.
Unfortunately, the snow wasn’t perfect. If I stayed in my track, it went too fast and if I stayed outside the track, it went too slow. The solution was to have one ski in the track and the other outside.
On the way down, I took a different route between 520m and 380m elevation. It’s a good thing I was observant…
And there were more hurdles, but eventually I reached the car – safe and sound. And now I looked forward to the steak dinner that Anne had promised me…
Trip statistics: 10,9km, 670 vertical meters, 2h:14m
Orrabruhaugen (295m), Apr 5 2020
Sunday: The weather was not great and it was raining when we left Anne’s house to hike along the Årøyelvi river.
It felt really nice to be inside the forest and just “chill” in a very Corona-compatible way.
We stopped by all the various sites along the way – Futaspranget, Bygdeborg, Gildreskreda and Olavskjelda.
Then Anne lost “the steam” and decided to head back while Karma and I headed up the forest to reach Orrabruhaugen. It kinda feels “wrong” when the hike doesn’t have some sort of “high point” – whatever the height and the prominence.
We joined Anne back at the car and returned to Sogndal.
Trip statistics: 5,5km, 355 vertical meters, 2h:40m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Kongaberget (160m), Apr 5 2020
Still Sunday: In the afternoon, we went for another walk. We drove up to the Røvhaugane trailhead and headed over to Kongaberget.
We then went up to Åberge when we realized that Karma’s leash was left at Kongaberget.
So, we went back to Kongaberget to pick it up and met Karms’s sister Turte along the way.
Afterwards, we wandered a bit around in the forest – having some fun along the way.
Eventually, we called it a day and returned to the Røvhaugane parking. It felt like a very lazy day, but the total was 8,7km and 550 vertical meters. Not too bad!
Trip statistics: 3,2km, 195 vertical meters, 1h:24m
Pictures (Iphone8) from the hike:
