Week started bad but ended with excellent skiing
Index
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| 03.01.2022 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 04.01.2022 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 05.01.2022 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 06.01.2022 | Røddalshorn | 563m | 100m | Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 07.01.2022 | Hasundhornet | 533m | 93m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 08.01.2022 | Melshornet | 807m | 564m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP |
| 08.01.2022 | Ski-skating, Leikongeidet | – | – | Herøy, M&R, Norway | – |
| 09.01.2022 | Sandhornet | 909m | 471m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP |
| 09.01.2022 | Ski-skating, Leikongeidet | – | – | Herøy, M&R, Norway | – |
Huldrehornet (271m), Jan 3 2022
Monday: Back home after a lovely Christmas break in eastern Norway. While not unexpected, it was still a small shock to come back to the insane weather the west coast can offer.
As I didn’t feel so good, I decided to start easy by a hike from home and to my local top Huldrehornet. Nothing Covid-like, and I did a test to be sure. It’s as little scientific as it can get, but it’s like being home makes me unwell. I got two years of health hotes to “prove it”, but what the heck is causing it? I thought it was the coffee machine, but obviously not.
Anyway – in the forest, everything was cool. The weather doesn’t reach this forest.
What’s “fun” with this forest is that you can get from “totally cool” to “insane” in a couple of minutes. Today was no exception. Being on top was no fun at all.
We made a quick descent down the steep south side and were soon back in the sheltered forest. We stopped via Djupvikhaugen on the way back.
Along the forest road, the snowfall resembled a popcorn-machine out of control…
Trip statistics: 7,4km, 455 vertical meters, 2h:40m
Rjåhornet (600m), Jan 4 2022
Tuesday: Lo and behold, today was actually a good weather day and I decided to hike Rjåhornet. I could just as well have been skiing as there was enough to snow to support a ski-descent.
It was a little windy on top but nothing even close to unpleasant.
The hike was just … very nice!
Trip statistics: 6km, 620 vertical meters, 2h:05m
Rambjøra (132m), Jan 5 2022
Wednesday: I was dead tired after work and the doorstep has seldom been higher. But, I managed to find the strength to walk the dog, but only across my local top Rambjøra. For reasons I don’t know, Karma simply *loves* this walk.
On the way down to Dragsund, I decided to extend the hike to include passing under the Dragsund bridge. As there was a nice shine in the sky I stopped for pictures.
Trip statistics: 5,1km, 180 vertical meters, 1h:35m
Røddalshorn (563m), Jan 6 2022
Thursday: Today it was time for my first ski-trip back home in 2022. The typical go-to place is Røddalshorn where I hoped to find tracks – to make the ascent a little easier for Karma.
But it looked a bit hopeless in the beginning. Over and over again, she got stuck and I had to lift her back up. For a while, I thought we would have to turn around…
But when we reached the foot of the mountain, I saw that it was less snow where the summer path runs. We made it over there and Karma was on steroids again. All over the place!
I was curious on how she would do on the descent route. But it turned out quite ok. Downhill + gravity does wonders.
Back at the car, undressing Karma would be very hard. She would have to hit the shower in suit and socks…
Trip statistics: 3,8km, 415 vertical meters, 1h:18m
Hasundhornet (533m), Jan 7 2022
Friday: I was not in the mood for another ski-trip and decided to hike Hasundhornet from Garsholhaugen. I *feared* that this could be a hard hike and I was right.
It started out easy though. We could easily follow the summer path up the hillside.
But the middle section – from 300m to 400m was super-strenuous. I had more or less snow up to my thighs all the time. Karma didn’t sink so much in and was doing better.
Once we reached the final hill, there was less snow and things got easier.
I had originally planned to descend to the Fjelle road, and go back up again to get some extra vertical meters. But I was just way, way too tired for that.
Descending the middle section was only marginally easier than going up.
Happy to be down and content with my Friday afternoon “workout”, I looked forward to Taco and red wine all by myself…
Trip statistics: 3,9km, 490 vertical meters, 1h:54m
Melshornet (809m), Jan 8 2022
Saturday: The project that I had dedicated almost all my spare time to for the past 14 months was now delivered and the software I had written was doing just fine on its own during the Christmas break. As such, weekends could once again be dedicated to outdoors activities. Like – skiing Melshornet on this beautiful Saturday.
The parking on Helgatun was full and I had to park closer to the skiing centre. Still, I never dread bringing the dog along on this busy route to one of the most popular mountains in the Sunnmøre alps. Accessibility + no risk of avalanches are major factors for it being so popular.
It was a nice trip and I’ve created a video clip that summarizes the trip. If you’re not into video, there is a gallery of still images below…
Trip statistics: 7,1km, 580 vertical meters, 1h:37m
Pictures from the trip (Canon EOS RP)
Cross-country track on Leikongeidet, Jan 8 2022
Saturday: After the Melshornet trip, I left Karma back home and drove up to Leikongeidet for some ski-skating. It’s actually the first time I’ve done this up here and as I knew that this was also a popular place, I wondered how the skating would be.
It turned out to be OK. It was late in the afternoon and most people had gone home. After 3 rounds (7,4km) and a lot of up and down, I was “spent”.
Still, I had a feeling that I would come back soon…
Trip statistics: 7,4km, 190 vertical meters
Sandhornet (909m), Jan 9 2022
Sunday: Like Melshornet, Sandhornet is also an ultra-popular mountain top on sunny days with good snow. I really wanted to go somewhere else, but I had to choose a mountain top where Karma stood a chance of getting up.
I was early enough to find parking at Brudevoll. One hour later and I would have had to look elsewhere for parking. We headed up the forest road, passing several skiers along the way. I felt strong and Karma was hyper…
Eventually, the mountain came into view and I could see there was not much virgin snow left. At least if I wanted to stay away from the possible avalanche-zones.
Karma was busy with other things – like making sure every single bush had been checked for rodents…
Approaching the final hill, I decided to pass as many skiers as I could. It’s a thing I normally do at this point to motivate myself for the final ascent. Karma had other priorities…
It was a tough pace, but I managed to pass all skiers I could see on the mountain once we had passed the forest part. It’s not that I ski very fast, I just don’t have to stop. Which makes all the difference. A much younger man was approaching us from behind. “The hell you are“, I said to myself and found a gear I didn’t know I had. 100 vertical meters from the top, he just gave up.
If my statistics are correct, this was my 17th visit to this top. It was good to be back, because the view from here is just awesome.
And now I could look forward to the descent – 800 vertical meters spread across 4,5km. It was … big fun!
Trip statistics: 9,1km, 820 vertical meters, 2 hours
Cross-country track on Leikongeidet, Jan 9 2022
Sunday: My return to the cross-country track on Leikongeidet came sooner than I expected. After getting Karma back home, I continued to Leikongeidet with the goal to do 4 rounds of ski-skating.
I was earlier than yesterday and there was people everywhere. And a lot of kids, very few of them standing…
There could be some guidelines for a place like this. Like, don’t walk in the prepared ski-tracks. Like, stop and chat outside the track and like, give skiers a chance to pass. Now, I could be a grumpy old man shouting “get out my way” and get pissed about just about everything. But I’m not. I was happy for the kids, I was happy for the families having a good day and … just happy.
I did 9,7km of fast skating (including some hard stops for reasons mentioned above) and returned home quite happy about how the week had been. 37km on skis (randonee & skating) was way more than I could ever dream of when I returned home to the shitty weather 6 days earlier…
Trip statistics: 9,7km, 250 vertical meters
