The nice weather continued…
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| 11.01.2021 | Djupvikhaugen | 98m | 29m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | |
| 13.01.2021 | Slettheidane | 542m | 44m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 14.01.2021 | Vikeskaret | 370m | – | Ulstein, Norway | |
| 15.01.2021 | Sollia | 661m | 661m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 16.01.2021 | Stemnehornet | 190m | 43m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 16.01.2021 | Svarane | 191m | 43m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 16.01.2021 | Høgåsen | 240m | 240m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 17.01.2021 | Rundebranden | 294m | 141m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Djupvikhaugen (98m), Jan 11 2020
Monday: This afternoon did NOT turn out the way I planned! The snow was epic and the weather was gorgeous and I was on my way to Leikongsætra on Gurskøy island to ski Røddalshorn and have the time of my life! But when I got to Leikongsætra I realized I had forgotten the battery pack for the headlamp.
OK, no problem. It’s only a 10-minute drive back home. But HECK if I found the battery pack back home. As I was now almost out of daylight – AND – as I could see snowfall moving in, I cancelled the trip and decided to shuffle some snow instead. And lo and behold – something black turned up from the deep snow. The battery pack!
A bit later in the afternoon, I took the dog with me and headed for Djupvikhaugen. I was confident that people had broken the trail before me, but no…
Winter was coming. That seemed to be quite clear. I’m no big fan of winter except when a) the weather is awesome, b) the roads have been ploughed and c) the snow is perfect for skiing. Karma does not have any conditions. She loves snow unconditionally.
Even if the snow was falling and it was dark, I really enjoyed breaking the trail. It was peaceful and peace and quiet is not something that describes my life at the present (extreme workload @work)
Trip statistics: 4,5km, 110 vertical meters, 1h:16m
Sletteheidane (592m), Jan 13 2021
Wednesday: When it’s snowing, it’s snowing properly. Just keeping the front yard open for the car takes all evening. Hence, no trip the day before. But this afternoon, the weather was back to fantastic and the snow even more so…
With all this fresh snow, I have limited options if I want to bring the dog. But skiing out from Leikongsætra in the afternoon is normally pretty safe. There are enough eager skiers that head out during the day and leave nice tracks for those of us who can’t get away until 4pm.
But we get something the daytime skiers don’t get – sunset!
We don’t have many days with perfect snow on the windy coastline of Norway so we better make those days count!
It started to get dark when we passed “Skaret“, but there was still enough light to get us to the top of Sletteheidane without using the headlamp.
The snow conditions were not so great on the mountain, but it made life a little easier for Karma. It would anyway be the descent from Skaret that would matter today.
The “blue hour” was about turn to total darkness and I “sucked in” every color the sky had to offer before the headlamp had to come on.
Skiing down the mountain was pure delight. The only downside that I had to stop and wait for Karma. But, she did her best to keep up!
Having worked 10 hours before the trip, I got enough energy from this type of activity to keep working 3-4 more hours. The only problem that this workload will probably be there for 6 months and the snow will not…
Trip statistics: 5,9km, 410 vertical meters, 1h:35m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
Vikeskaret (370m), Jan 14 2021
Thursday: After yet another long and intense working day, I was all washed out when it was time to walk the dog. And I decided to just that – walk the dog – and leave the skis back home.
I just wanted to walk and went to the place where I figured my chances for a broken trail would be best – in the hillside above Ulsteinvik!
I parked at Bugarden and headed up “monster hill”. And sure enough, the trail was broken!
On top of the hill, I decided to follow the gravel road across Vikeskaret.
Daylight was fading fast and I could enjoy pretty colors out at sea.
The “blue hour” (which s actually just minutes) occurred on top of Vikeskaret.
As we headed down towards Ulsteinvik, it got dark in an instant and the headlamp had to come on.
Trip statistics: 6,9km, 320 vertical meters, 1h:36m
Sollia (661m), Jan 15 2021
Friday: The plan was to finish work around 3pm and have a really nice ski-trip to Sollia with daylight all the way up and down. That plan was shattered when we had a major network failure at work.
But eventually, it got sorted out and I was free to go on my skiing trip.
Skiing up from Leikongskardet was just as nice as two days earlier, but now I was really eager to get on the mountain and enjoy the amazing colors on the sky, I knew would come.
The colors came already as we passed Skaret.
And when we got on the mountain, it was just a color festival. Pink in one direction and dark red in the other…
The snow on the mountain was affected by wind. Not nice for skiing, but definitely nice for rolling!
And then we reached the top of Sollia – the highest point on Gurskøya island – for the first time in 2021!
It felt just fine…
On our way down the mountain, the snow had just started to become “packed“, but was not hard enough yet to make skiing difficult. I blasted down the mountain, smiling from ear to ear.
The best snow was yet to come. The snow from Skaret and down to Leikongeidet is normally awful due to wind and shadow, but today it was just Christmas Eve…
It was yet another gorgeous afternoon on skis, but one thing was for sure – Karma would need de-icing!
Trip statistics: 9km, 525 vertical meters, 1h:54m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
Stemnehornet (190m), Svarane (191m), Høgåsen (240m), Jan 16 2021
Saturday: Full working day, with a 2-hour break in the middle of the day. Surely enough to walk the dog in the local neighbourhood. But, I had to take the amount of snow into consideration and gave some thought to where I could expect to find a broken trail.
I was totally confident that the good people of Dimnøya island had made well sure to welcome guests from outside the island by preparing the island trails. Hence, I decided to do the usual Stemnehornet – Svarane – Høgåsen loop. That would even give me time for lunch before part II of the working day.
When I headed out from the sports fields, I noticed footprints, but by far not enough to make this a comfortable walk. Even worse, the owner of these footprints had walked in direction of Uglesætra and not Stemnehornet. We were left to ourselves and a whole lot of snow!
It was a strenuous hike up to Stemnehornet, but even worse on the way down on the other side!
The next goal was Svarane and the road ahead seemed mighty hard. At worst, I had snow up to my knees. But we were close to halfway and turning around didn’t seem to be a better option.
Finally, we reached the top of Svarane and had Høgåsen in clear view ahead of us. Descending down from Svarane was cumbersome, but ascending Høgåsen felt like swimming through snow. Poor Karma!
But eventually, we joined the normal route to Høgåsen and could enjoy tracks the remaining distance to the top.
I refused to check the time. If I were to return to work late, then it would be no crisis. Some people would have to wait until my part was completed, but so be it.
At least it was a stunning day. And in the evening, Anne would come up from Sogndal. And I finally found the courage to check the time. I was en route for work! Things were looking up!
Trip statistics: 4,9km, 325 vertical meters, 1h:33m
Rundebranden (294m), Jan 17 2021
Sunday: The snowmelt had begun and as Anne had never gone skiing on Runde before, she wanted to grab the opportunity.
I was somewhat pessimistic about the notion of epic skiing on this island bordering to the Atlantic, but we could at least take trip and see how the conditions were.
The conditions turned out to be … not optimal…
But now that we were here, we didn’t want to turn around. And off we went…
Interestingly, in the lower part – there was some snow left. In the upper part, not enough for skiing. But at least we got to Kaldekloven and could claim we had been skiing.
The remaining part up to the top was 50% grass and 50% snow. But who cares…
We enjoyed the view to the north before preparing for the descent.
The descent was NOT epic. That much is true. Actually, it was so bad that it was almost epic with a negative sign in front of it…
Anyhow, it was a nice end to a week with a whole lot of lovely weather!
Trip statistics: 5,6km, 300 vertical meters, 1h:45m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
