The most awesome viewpoint in Møre & Romsdal county?
| Peak | Height | PF | Municipality | WCP |
| Skårasalen | 1542m | 1384m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP |
Well, how about a fresh update for once.
This was a fairly OK weather day, albeit a bit windy. The plan was to hike Søre Grøtdalstind in Ørsta municipality, but a herd of cattle was gathered by the first gate on the forest road. I didn’t want to take my chances in case this herd went “Hey…” when I opened the gate. So I turned around to hike Skårasalen instead.
Skårasalen has the highest primary factor in Møre & Romsdal county – 1384m. This means in practice that you have to descend 1384m before you can climb a higher mountain. Along the highest route. This also means that the peak “owns” a whopping 1384m in contours that completely encircle the mountain. In other words, the closest peak obscuring any views is not directly *close by*
This would be my 5th visit to the peak and Karma’s second. Her first visit was on Norway’s national day back in 2013.
We started out from the Kvistaddalen parking (500m elev, toll road presently NOK 45,-) and could enjoy nice views already from the get-go.
I haven’t been up here since me and some buddies climbed the awesome Klovtinden back in September 2018. I’m SO happy I finally got to climb this fine peak.
Skårasalen is a different ball game. There are no tricky parts. Except in winter, maybe. Avalanches do go off here…
We kept a good pace up the mountain and when we were about to enter the rocky valley next to Blåhornet, I decided to keep going straight up.
This choice gave us a whole lot more grass, but also more cumbersome rock when we finally ran out of rock.
But it wasn’t all bad and if I didn’t have the well being of a dog to consider, this would be my standard ascent route – every time.
We reached the summit 2:40pm – 1h:40m after heading out from the trailhead. 1030 vertical meters. Sort of expected. I’m not in my prime age any longer. The same can be said for Karma. I feel sorry for her sometimes.
It was really good to be up here again and I looked forward to letting my camera run hot. But first, the dog had to be rewarded for her efforts.
The primary view up here is of course the Hjørundfjord…
But the region close to Kolåstinden isn’t bad either…
Upon descent, we took the normal route down. Except for stopping by a viewpoint where the summit looks different when seen from the normal route…
At 1100m, we passed a group of 4 that started out at the same time as we did. We had a nice chat. A mix of Austrians and Norwegians and one of them was raised in Tyrol and should be accustomed to this terrain. However, I reckoned I would reach my car before they reached the summit…
Trip statistics: 6,7km, 1040 vertical meters, 2h:30m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Hi Arnt,
Merry Christmas and a good start into 2022! I hope you are doing well, it seems that your job still requires a lot of time…
Greetings from Austria, Florian
Thank you! Very much appreaciated. Yes, work was more intense than I could imagine, and there were other struggles too. After a break, I look forward to blogging in 2022! Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year to you too!