A dark week…
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| 22.02.2022 | Djupvikhaugen | 98m | 29m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | |
| 24.02.2022 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 25.02.2022 | Aksla | 188m | 188m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
| 26.02.2022 | Høgkubben | 450m | 62m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
| 27.02.2022 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 27.02.2022 | Røddalshorn | 563m | 100m | Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 27.02.2022 | Klosterhaugen | 20m | 20m | Herøy, M&R, Norway |
Karma, Feb 21 2022
Monday: Sunday wasn’t a good day for Karma. She was clearly in distress, trying to constantly vomit. I was out with her 5 times that night, shoveling snow so that she could east grass. She seemed quite desperate. No sleep for either of us that night.
On Monday morning, I called the Vet in Ålesund. They could take her in already at 11am, and I immediately prepared for the 1,5 hour trip to town.
In the Vet’s office, I was trying to explain Karma’s problem when she took the matter into her own hands and vomited two times in front of the Vet. No further explanation was necessary and the Vet took her in for a full-fledged check.
I picked her up 4 hours later. Fortunately, all vital organs seemed OK, but a rapid test for pancreatitis was positive. In lack of any other markers, she was put on Cortisone treatment and got pills for nausea and pain. I have the utmost confidence in the Vet and we discussed short- and long term plans for her, especially when it came to diet. She is also struggling with allergies.
The medicine seemed to work instantaneous, as the signs of discomfort had vanished. The only “issue” for me was that I felt I had a stranger in the house now. She looked like an on-call firefighter during a thunderstorm, ready to immediately respond. Her body seemed to relax but she was looking at me non-stop. Later, I learned that Cortisone have some side effects that could explain this behavior.
Djupvikhaugen (98m), Feb 22 2022
Tuesday: Today I took Karma on an easy walk across Djupvikhaugen. She was now starting to look like herself again. I am by no means expert in dog language, but there were some uplifting signs. For starters, she was walking in front of me, opposed to alongside or just trailing. I was letting her choose for herself and when we came to the point where the trail begins, I just waited for her to decide. It didn’t take her many seconds to decide on the trail.
It’s a short walk to the top and I felt we were complying to the Vet’s general advice on her exercise ramp-up plan.
Trip statistics: 4,3km, 160 vertical meters, 1 hour
Rambjøra, Feb 24 2022
Thursday: Karma was definitely doing better. We skipped walking in the forest the day before, mainly because of the cruel weather, but today we would hike across my local top Rambjøra.
The weather was not anywhere close to pleasant, but it didn’t matter. Karma was too focused on the smells and my head kept spinning on Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and how this would change the world for the foreseeable future. If it hadn’t been for Karma’s progress, this day would have been 100% dark.
After a while, I was able to wrap my head around other topics. Like, how many times this year did we have a considerable snowfall (meaning I had to shovel snow) only for it to melt away 2-3 days later. Was it 5 or 6? I couldn’t remember some much non-stop crap weather, except for 3 consecutive months of rain in Bergen some 15 years back. But that was Bergen – notoriously known for the rain. I concluded that it would not only be the geopolitical landscape that had just changed for years to come, but also the weather. The only stable nowadays seems to be instability.
Trip statistics: 3,4km, 150 vertical meters, 1 hour
Aksla (188m), Feb 25 2022
Friday: This is a blog about having fun outdoors, and politics – foreign or domestic does not belong here. Still, it would be rather tone deaf if I didn’t signal that what is happening in Ukraine affects us all day long. It’s mind-boggling and terrifying at the same time. My heart bleed for the Ukraine people – suffering and dying in a totally needless war.
Back to our peaceful (knock on wood!) life on the Norwegian coastline – Karma was now back in the Vet’s office (in Ålesund), for control. Her tail wasn’t exactly up in the air, but the Vet concluded that she clearly was “a different dog” than on Monday. While it wasn’t crystal clear that pancreatitis was the correct diagnosis, it was definitely an issue in the intestine and stomach region. Which was now clearly getting better. We agreed on a diet, medication and follow-up plan and Karma got the ready signal for normal exercise.
After work, I figured it would be nice to hike across Aksla. If it hadn’t been for the amount of snow, it would have been tempting to go elsewhere. But as Anne was on her way up from Sogndal, Aksla was the perfect choice. We would then be home around the time she arrived.
The weather was truly awful in the morning, when I drove to Ålesund. Then it cleared up. I looked forward to a walk under a blue sky and Karma seemed very happy to be back in the Aksla forest.
But as we approached Rundskue – the high point, a snow shower came upon us. But without the wind, a snowfall was “totally acceptable”.
I hoped it would just be a passing shower and continued towards Fjellstua for the traditional town picture. The shower had passed when we got there.
It was nice to be back in Ålesund, but it would be even nicer to be with Anne and so I jogged all the way back – with a backpack containing clothes and equipment for all kinds of weather. I bring the same stuff whether I walk across my local forest top or ski a mountain where a broken leg can really get me in trouble on a cold and windy day.
Trip statistics: 7,1km, 320 vertical meters, 1h:19m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Høgkubben (450m), Feb 25 2022
Saturday: Back in Ålesund for the 3rd time this week. Not to bring Karma to the Vet’s office this time. Anne had to go to the Moa shopping centre and I figured we might could hike Høgkubben afterwards. The distance and vertical gain would fit well with my ramp-up plan for Karma.
We headed out from Blindheim and found a nice footpath through the snowy forest.
The amount of snow seemed to scale linear to the elevation. We could just as well have gone skiing.
I was hoping that it was possible to do my usual round trip hike, but I had my doubts based on the amount of snow.
I was also curious how windy the top would be. There was a lot of noise coming from the forest, which is normally an indicator to be trusted.
The top was indeed windy. Actually, it was quite windy, but it wasn’t so that an immediate escape was called for. Half of my pictures came out totally useless, which meant “windy above average”, but as I got some OK pictures, then it wasn’t a full storm either.
The path we had been following was the only walked path up from the Blindheim side of the mountain, which meant no round trip hike for us today. We returned to the pine forest and had some fun before returning to the car. On the ferry back home, we could feel that the wind was picking up and the sea was definitely more rugged now. I decided that this would be all the walking I would do today. Better get on the spinning bike for some more mileage instead…
Trip statistics: 6,1km, 410 vertical meters, 1h:34m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Rjåhornet (600m), Feb 27 2022
Sunday: If it hadn’t been for the strong wind, we would have been skiing Sulafjellet (778m) today. But I wasn’t very interested in being on such an exposed mountain in this wind. So, we settled for a walk up to Rjåhornet instead. We ought to have gone skiing, and I am not sure why we didn’t even consider it. Perhaps we got fooled by the rapid melting of snow. After all, we saw temperatures of 10 deg. during the day!
We headed out from Leikong and the hike up to the first trail fork was easy enough. Then it got a bit harder…
The view across the fjord made us wonder how the wind would be like on top.
The walk got gradually easier (less snow) and it wasn’t terrible windy yet. Halfway up, everything was honky dory fine!
But when we got to 400m, the wind was considerably stronger. I suggested we should switch over to the Djupvika trail, as then we would be more sheltered from the wind. Anne didn’t think was clever at all. In fact, the felt it was *more* windy. Moreover, the snow was bordering to icy and we couldn’t get to the point I knew would be way less windy – without risking sliding off the mountain.
As we were about to top out on the summit plateau, I said we should embrace ourselves, only to find that the wind wasn’t so bad as I thought. It was indeed windy, but conditions were not *bad*. Still, the only sensible place to be on top, was in shelter behind the Tussa building. Here, we chatted with 3 skiers that came up from Djupvika.
I really, really wished I had skis now, and I promised myself to go skiing after this hike.
We took a different route down. The soft snow was much more less strenuous going downhill…
And then it was time for some fun! Act young and stay young!
We took the route to Bakkehammaren on our way back to Leikong. It was a very nice hike, but now I wanted to go skiing!
Trip statistics: 6,4km, 605 vertical meters, 1h:54m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Røddalshorn (563m), Feb 27 2022
Sunday: After returning home from the Rjåhornet hike, I had 3 slices of bread and then I drove up to Leikongeidet to ski Røddalshorn.
The normal route (which I’ve skied every time for the last years) was in the shadow of the mountain, and I decided to try out the sunny side. I wasn’t totally unfamiliar with this side, but I don’t think I’ve skied here before.
The snow was wonderful. Even the parts that were in the shade had nice snow. I looked SO MUCH forward to the descent.
I decided to stay in the sunshine, although it meant taking more wind than I would have if I went up the ridge and stayed on the lee side.
I was so incredible happy when I reached the top and started to get ready for the descent.
The snow was packed solid up here, and it resembled a floor more than a skiing slope. But, that was only the upper part and it didn’t take long before I felt that the skis got a grip in the snow. A lovely feeling. And the rest was just awesome. The snow felt truly like spring snow, and Feb 27 was now officially the first “touch” of spring this year. Not that I think spring is around the corner. By no means!
I will definitely do this route more often. The main difference is that this route includes a traverse (gully crossing), whereas on the normal route you can put the “pedal to the metal” all the way.
Trip statistics: 4km, 385 vertical meters, 51 mins
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
Klosterhaugen, Herøya (20m), Feb 27 2022
Sunday: Anne was definitely done with outdoor activities today, and I had to sweet-talk her into coming for a last walk, where the only goal was to suck in the final rays of sunshine. This may very well have been the 2nd day (out of 58) without precipitation. I believe the actual number is 3 or 4, but others disagree.
Anyway, I suggested we should go to Herøya island. I like the walk there and we would definitely get the last rays of sunshine!
Karma was really “hyper“. Typically, I would write that “she looked like she was on steroids“, but given that she is on Cortisone, that would just be … obvious. But the combination of the smell of salt water, waves, birds … She had OMG! written all over her face. She didn’t want to miss a single thing…
We went down to the shore and enjoyed the sunshine for a little while before moving on.
On the way back, we stopped by the “Herøyspelet” outdoor theatre. Anne demanded to be entertained.
And Karma and I did our best to deliver…
On the way back, a young girl fell HARD for Karma. It was bordering to emotional…
Trip statistics: 2,4km, 90 vertical meters, 56 mins
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the walk:
Yes politics out but mountains in have you been up the highest mountain in the Ukraine?I went up it about 11 years ago I can’t remember it’s name something like Havla and it’s around 2200m.I flew to Liviv and train to Ivano Franska and bus to Vorokata.It’s not technically challenging but a long slog to the summit and in cloud it’s easy to get lost and come down the wrong side meaning a 42km walk back to Vorokata…. literally walking all night!A bit more political I don’t think that Norway needs to worry too much but Finland is a different story as the Russians have an axe to grind with them from the 1930’s!
Hoverla, 2061. Not been there, love to go! A GPS would probably be helpful 😉 As for your final note, I am not particularly worried about Norway. I’m just worrying this goes totally sideways with the worst possible outcome…
It already is going sideways with the worst possible outcome! Obviously a nuclear war would be serious for all life on our planet which is the only place in the known universe where we know life exist.I think that Putin may be happy to restore the former area of the USSR but he may have ambitious beyond into the former Eastern Bloc as he was a KGB man based in Leipzig in the the DDR.Both Finland and Austria had close shaves with Russia and they almost invaded Lichtenstein too!The father of the present prince of Lichtenstein had to go to the Red Army commander and tell him that they where at the border of a neutral country and not part of Germany or Austria I don’t know what language they communicated in.There’s a good mountain in Lichtenstein,the Naafkop (over 2500m(I think?)),where if you walk around the summit marker you enter and leave 3 countries; Lichtenstein, Switzerland and Austria.
My faith in santity prevailing has taken massive blows for the past 5 years. But as you say – serious for all life. We’re planning a tour de Europe one day, hoping to get as many nation high points as possible. Probably in our post-dog era. In addition to all the pf100 tops in Denmark 😉 That’s weird enough to sound like big fun.
The highest point in Liechtenstein is a technical climb if I recall.Andorra’s is easy but high.San Marino easy and about 750m.Monaco I’m not sure but must be up near the botanical gardens at a guess 200m as after that you’d be in France!The Vatican State must be up man made but natural about 50m above sea level.Luxembourg is very hilly but not over 600m.Belgium will surprise you as people think that it’s, like the Netherlands or Denmark,flat(although they’re not all flat)with the Signal Botrange at around 650m.