Steinsvikfjellet, Dec 29 2021

Christmas break, day 8

Rondane view from Steinsvikfjellet

Tops visited:

Top Height PF Municipality
Steinsvikfjellet 967m 90m Ringsaker, Norway
Midtfjellet 947m 24m Ringsaker, Norway

Continued from day 7

Day 8 and our last full day on Sjusjøen. The weather was back to superb and today’s goal would be Steinsvikfjellet – which included a lot of off-track skiing. Clearly, terrain for mountain skis. The only problem was that we would have to ski 5km+ along the tracks just to get to the off-track part. And so I decided to take the old skating skis (!)

Today’s route – 17km

We started this trip together with Anne May and Jan – the cabin owners.

Heading out from Storåsen

They would leave later in the day but come back the day after. By that time, Anne and I would have checked out.

Parting with our friends

Anne May and Jan had their own trip to make. We kept company down the hill from Storåsen and then we parted.

Down this hill and then we went separate ways

The transport leg was already a familiar route – down to Kroksjøen and across Gjestbodsåsen.

Now it was just Anne, Karma and me…

After Gjestbodsåsen, we began our off-track project

Heading for Steinsvikfjellet

When we (finally) reached the Midtfjellet – Steinsvikfjellet ridge, we hoped we find tracks. We didn’t.

On the forest ridge

But eventually we reached the top of Steinsvikfjellet (967m) which is 140m SE of the signpost point (below picture)

On Steinsvikfjellet

Karma had done considerable leg work this Christmas but seemed to be in good shape while the trip was on. We knew that once back home, she would be stiff and sore but like always – be in shape for the next trip…

Our little good girl!

It was OK that this was our last full day up here. With Steinsvikåsen, all my local goals were now in the bag. I do look forward to come back and visit the tops in the Nordseter – Hafjell region.

View from Steinsvikfjellet

It was time to head back and we agreed that we would ski across Midtfjell and descend towards the Birkebeiner track.

Hurry! Mom is leaving!

It wasn’t easy to figure out where the Midtfjellet high point, but if we didn’t cross it, it wasn’t far away. As such – it had to count. After all it took some effort to get here.

Working our way across Midtfjellet

Finally we reached the Birkebeiner route and followed this track back to Sjusjøen.

On the Birkebeiner track

Project-wise I was happy to leave. But on the other side, I really hated starting on the long journey home – even if we were to stop in Søndre Land for a couple of days. This vacation had done me good! After a month of sickness, I had almost lost hope about having good days outdoors again. But now, the arrows were definitely pointing in the right direction!

Continued on day 9

Leave a Reply