Not a fun week. Mostly bad weather…
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| 08.09.2020 | Aksla | 188m | 188m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
| 09.09.2020 | Stemnehornet | 190m | 43m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 09.09.2020 | Svarane | 191m | 43m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 09.09.2020 | Høgåsen | 240m | 240m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 10.09.2020 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 11.09.2020 | Solavågsfjellet | 263m | 210m | Sula, Norway | WCP |
| 12.09.2020 | Haugsvarden | 862m | 112m | Gloppen, Norway | – |
Aksla (188m), Sep 8 2020
Tuesday: The working day in Ålesund was OK, despite sleeping only 3 hours the night before. For some reason, I always sleep badly the night before travels to Ålesund. It was however nice to see both of my colleagues again, for the first time since the beginning of March.
After work, I chose to hike across Aksla for the first time in 2020. Weird, as it’s normally should have been my 20th hike this year – or something. We started out in Gangstøvika and Karma just refused to take one step further. I think she has some really bad memories from the time I used to run from here. I had to pull rank on her, and once she understood we were not going the running route she accepted to come along, albeit reluctantly.
When we got to the point where the forest path begins, she made it clear that we were going into the forest and NOT along the public gravel road. It was quite easy to let her have it her way.
After numerous hikes on this city mountain, it’s difficult to think of new things to photograph, but I didn’t remember having a picture of Karma on top of a WW2 bunker in my archives…
Rain was around the corner and I wanted to reach the Fjellstua viewpoint before the rain sat in and so we switched back on to the normal trail to get there faster.
It started to rain 2 minutes before we reached Fjellstua. Aargh!
Then we continued up to the high point – Rundskue.
The sun was shining on Ellingsøya island and I hoped that some of it could come our way, but no.
We descended down to Borgarnes vei (my former running route) and returned to Gangstøvika.
At Sulesund – the usual waiting…
Trip statistics: 7,3km, 300 vertical meters, 1h:30m
Stemnehornet (190m), Svarane (191m), Høgåsen (240m), Sep 9 2020
Wednesday: Basically a shitty day, weather- and form wise. After work, I pulled myself and Karma once more won the walk the dog vs. take a nap battle. I chose a low-key walk, one that Karma likes – across the tops on Dimnøya island.
For the sake of variation, we took the round clockwise, starting out with Stemnehornet instead of Høgåsen.
The path was soaking wet…
The bonus was that it wasn’t raining right now, and if we could just get to Høgåsen without rain, I would be happy.
And so we did!
And from the top I could see the next wave of showers coming in.
Trip statistics: 4,7km, 325 vertical meters, 1h:10m
Rjåhornet (600m), Sep 10 2020
Thursday: If yesterday was shitty, today was pure crap. For a number of reasons. The weather was so nasty that I had already determined that there be no hiking after work. But then we got a break from the rain and my shape and form had gotten a bit better. And all of a sudden, we were on our way from Djupvika to Rjåhornet (Gurskøy island).
The wind was strong, but without rain it was just … wind. Not a problem!
But on top, it was best to take shelter. The summit is twice as exposed as the route leading up to it.
Trip statistics: 6km, 580 vertical meters, 1h:30m
Solavågsfjellet (263m), Sep 11 2020
Friday: Let’s see – how was this Friday? Let me think… Oh yes, it started with Gastroscopy. Another step on the route to figure out what is riddling me. But the days before (waiting) were worse than the actual procedure. I had heard that this was … not fun at all.
They gave me throat spray and I thought I would choke. Then they offered me sedation and I asked them to “kill the lights“. I remember biting on the tube, thinking “this is going to be a BAD day”. The next thing I remember was the words “that’s it“. Then they took my arm and walked me out to the waiting room. In the haze, that reminded me about the good old 80’s and the doormen.
When I spoke to the Doctor some half hour later, I asked what happened. “You asked for the lights to be killed“, she replied. My kind of Doctor!
The tension headache I had carried with me over night vanished immediately and the day all of a sudden had potential!
The weather was still a bit crappy, so I chose a forest walk on the way home from Ålesund much later in the day. Solavågsfjellet always offers a nice forest walk and I drove to Solavågen. The plan was the usual round trip hike.
Then I discovered a vague path up the forest. Well, not so vague in places, but mostly vague. More a deer track than a path for hikers.
This path took us up to Lisjehjellhaugen (251m) where I hadn’t been before. It’s a bump in the forest, 30m primary factor, but a new bump is always a good bump.
Eventually, we reached the high point, also known as Trollhaugen and followed one of the normal routes down. While waiting for the ferry, for the 2nd time in 2 weeks, there were ticks all over my pants. Fewer than 100, as on my recent Sula hike, but enough to repeat the strip-naked in the hallway procedure and enter the shower along with the dog.
Trip statistics: 3,4km, 300 vertical meters, 1 hour
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Haugsvarden (862m), Sep 12 2020
Saturday: I wasin a jolly good mood when I drove to Sogndal today. Not only was the Gastroscopy history, but next week I would have my 4th week of vacation. Without any plans at all. Other than, let me see – I would have to work on Monday, and probably Tuesday too and on Thursday I had to drive Anne to eastern Norway. But other than that – no plans!
The weather was really bad when I left home. It was pouring down, and Anne reported the same weather in Sogndal. But when I crossed Nordfjord on the Lote – Anda ferry, the weather was holding up. Rain showers were roaming on Gloppefjorden, but the main road and the mountains up to the left were in the clear. I decided to pay Haugsvarden a visit. It wouldn’t be too much of a hike, if I only could figure out where to start. I had visited this top back in 2011, but didn’t remember where I started from.
But if I exited the main road at the “Fjellbygda” signpost, I could ask around. Then I noticed the “Haugsvarden parking” signpost. How excellent! Warm thoughts to the ones responsible! Multiple signposts guided me all the way up to a nice parking at 520m – along a toll road.
We followed the forest path up to Tystadstøylen.
We were still in the clear, but the rain showers were close.
Eventually, we reached the upper plateau and while I knew the distance to the top, the distance was still a little bit of a shock. I didn’t trust the weather to hold up for long and started to jog.
Every now and then I had to stop for a picture.
We reached the top without and no rain had fallen yet. Big bonus!
And then it started to pour down. We were soaking wet when we returned to Tystadstøylen and it cleared up again. It was heavenly nice to return to the car and change to dry clothes, top to bottom.
Sogndal and “vacation” week – here we come!
Trip statistics: 6,9km, 380 vertical meters, 1h:08m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Helleberget (988m), Dyrhovden (943m), Sep 13 2020
Sunday: See separate trip report
Sorry you had bad weather but the hikes look great! Thank you!