Gråsida, Jul 19 2021

Arnt Flatmo - Fjordpeaks.com

5 years ago

Summer vacation, day 1

Index

Peak	Height	PF	Location
Gråsida	1513m	203m	Dovre, Norway

I’m back…

I hope…

Due to an extremely intense project at work, I haven’t touched this blog since the beginning of February. As the project is on track I hope I get some more time on my hands to share pictures from my trips, I’m jumping straight to my summer vacation, which I just finished. I’ll then see what I will do with the trips and hikes between week 5 and 29. It’s a horrible backlog.

Anyway, the main goal for the summer vacation was a return to the stunning Rødøy island, which Anne, me and our buddy Bjørn Eirik visited in 2014 as part of our epic Helgeland island hopping tour. The picture I took from the top of Rødøyløva has become one of my favorite pictures and I’ve never forgotten this place. I remember thinking – how cool would it have been to come back again – with kayaks!

And now Anne, Bjørn Eirik, Karma and I were on our way back to Rødøy. With kayaks! The only problem was that the weather in northern Norway was worse than miserable and none of us wanted to go straight up to the north. Instead, we decided to hang around in the Nord-Østerdalen region until the weather up north improved.

On Monday, July 19th – Anne and I drove from Sunnmøre and met up with Bjørn Eirik (driving from Oslo) at Sel. As it was already afternoon, we discussed where our first night should be spent. I had never been to Grimsdalen (near the Rondane massif) before and it was a practical route for getting to Nord-Østerdalen. So, we decided to drive to Grimsdalen and find a place to camp for the night.

We found a good place close to 1200m elevation, just before Vegaskilet. It was quite windy and a bit cold, but we found some shelter in the terrain and established camp.

Afterwards, it was time for a walk and “as it happened” a top with a primary factor with 100m+ was just in the neighborhood. I could not think of a better way to start my vacation than to get a new mountain top. The others were quite happy with an afternoon walk and off we went.

When we got on the mountain ridge, it didn’t exactly feel like summer. The temperature was probably around 10 deg. C. (if even that) and the wind was fierce. But – it wasn’t raining!

After a 4,2km walk – we reached point 1511m. There was another 1511m point 1,4km to the northeast but as peakbook.org had the westernmost top as the highest, I had no interest in continuing this windy walk. Nor did the others…

This is my kind of start of a vacation! And the others seemed happy too!

The descent route went (of course) straight off the mountain. 1,5km along the main road was better than walking the same route in a strong headwind.

Back in the tent, Anne organized a delicious dinner and I was trying to get the vacation feeling. After working far more than I should for 8 months, I realized it would take some days to get there. In any case, I loved going to sleep in my sleeping bag after a couple of beers. I’ve not slept that good in a long time!