Happy new year! May it be a better one than the last…
| Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| Stedjeåsen | 624m | 121m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP |
New Year’s Eve, Solvorn, Dec 31 2020
Thursday, Week 53: After a very enjoyable ski-trip to Tylderingen, Anne, Karma and I sat course for Solvorn, where we would celebrate New Year’s Eve 2020 with two dear friends and their kids. I will let the private celebration remain private, but will share a couple of pictures from when the clock turned – and the next morning.
I had no idea how to take pictures of fireworks, and while searching the internet resulted in some good tips, it didn’t help much as I wasn’t able to figure out all the necessary controls on the camera. That is – independently, yes. But not all at once. The results were so and so…
Karma has become a bit nervous about fireworks during the last years, so Anne took her down to the basement and sang a whole bunch of songs for her.
After a MOST enjoyable night, we went to bed close to 3:30am and breakfast was accordingly LATE. Plenty of time to take a walk in downtown Solvorn and enjoy this pearl of a village and the fine Sognefjord views.
It could have been raining or snowing, and so I really appreciated that the first day in the new year was a nice one. It helps!
While it would have been nice to start the year with a proper ski-trip, that would just not happen when breakfast begins 1pm…
And so I decided to hike Stedjeåsen once we returned to Sogndal.
Stedjeåsen (624m), Dec 1 2021
Friday, Week 53: When we returned to Sogndal, I had talked Anne into joining me on a hike to Stedjeåsen. I knew she would have preferred the sofa and a good book, but I had compelling arguments.
I also knew that she would have preferred the normal path as the first, second and third option, but once again – my compelling arguments worked and we entered a really obnoxious off-trail terrain.
Take the strenuous part away, and I know that deep inside, Anne likes these types of routes.
Eventually we joined the normal path and we had a short break by “Dagsturhytta“. There is one hut like this in every municipality in Sogn and Fjordand county and inside there is normally a book library for children . But it has been temporarily been removed because of the pandemic.
Then we moved on…
I encouraged Anne to “push it“, so we would reach the top before it got dark. I had forgotten to adjust my “inner clock” to winter solstice. Today, the sun wouldn’t be setting 4:30pm, but 4:42pm. Which makes a whole lot of difference on a short walk like this. And if you’re in for some good news, on the last day of this month (Jan 2021), the sun will set 5:19pm. At the end of February, 6pm, and so on…
Normally, we stop at the visitor register on Stedjeåsen, some 200 meters northeast of the high point. But on the first day of the year, I wanted to be on the high point! Very few people go there. In summer, it’s too wet and in winter, there’s too much snow to tempt anyone to be the first one to break trail. But today, there wasn’t a lot of snow.
And then we could wish another year welcome from a mountain top…
Just like we did from this very top 4 years ago…
