Winter is back, but with some blue sky too…
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| 28.03.2022 | Djupvikhaugen | 98m | 29m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | |
| 28.03.2022 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 29.03.2022 | Leinebjørnen | 271m | 108m | Herøy, Norway | WCP |
| 29.03.2022 | Leinehornet | 364m | 364m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 30.03.2022 | Laupsnipa | 562m | 380m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 31.03.2022 | Haugshornet | 431m | 53m | Sande, Norway | WCP |
| 01.04.2022 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 02.04.2022 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 03.04.2022 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Djupvikhaugen (98m), Huldrehornet (271m), Mar 28 2022
Monday: Trail maintenance day. The first task was to carry a bag of wood chips up Djupvikhaugen, from the trailhead. When I got there, it was only one bag left and it seemed that the other members of the local trail maintenance group had done carried the rest.
The only problem was that the bag was incredibly heavy. The chips were wet, and the plastic was broken. When I lifted the bag, I realized I would only be able to walk 20-30 meters at a time. As it was 1,5km to the top, this could take a while. For comparison, I would rather carry a 40-50kg sack of cement…
On the way up, I could not remember last time I felt so tired. Not even when I used to run up mountains, I was this exhausted. But I got the bag up and saw that the rest of the bags were much smaller and lighter. More portable, too. Later on, I learned that the intention was to break this bag into smaller bags so that they could be carried. It didn’t make me feel like Superman, but I was quite happy about the effort…
Then Karma and I moved onto the Djupvika trail to rip bush. I didn’t have too much “juice” left for ripping stubborn roots and eventually called it a day and decided to return to the car via Huldrehornet. While ripping, I “enjoyed” a good old fashioned hail shower while Karma was hiding under a tree…
Spring was seemingly on its way on every front, but it felt way too early and I wondered if winter would come back in full. More on that later…
On the way up Huldrehornet, we took a steeper (off-trail) route – one that I knew Karma would be safe-ish in. She knows how to handle herself…
It was an OK start to the week…
Trip statistics: 5km, 345 vertical meters, 2h:13m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the walk:
Leinebjørnen (271m), Leinehornet (366m), Mar 29 2022
Tuesday: My doubts about spring being here were proven correct today. It was snowing again. It wasn’t a huge snowfall, more like 5cm, then sunshine and snowmelt then another 5cm, etc. I decided to hike Leinebjørnen on Leinøya island and if the weather wasn’t too bad, maybe include Leinehornet on the hike also.
Leinøya was the only place in the outer region where it was snowing. But, knowing these were snow showers (coming and going), it was OK. This meant that I could get nice weather on top.
And sure enough, it stopped snowing when we reached the top.
I decided to keep moving on towards Leinehornet, and I enjoyed a few magical minutes with fresh snow and the sun trying to break through.
Karma was overjoyed about the fresh snow, and she didn’t need daddy today. When we reached Leinehornet, I really wanted to keep on hiking. But as I was on-duty, I had to make sure I could respond to a call in proper time and sat course for the car, via Leine – wondering how the weather would be for the coming week.
Trip statistics: 7,2km, 530 vertical meters, 1h:52m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
Laupsnipa (562m), Mar 30 2022
Wednesday: The weather was beautiful and after work I decided to hike Laupsnipa. It would be a fairly short hike, given my on-duty week and because Anne would come up from Sogndal in the afternoon.
We took the usual route from Voldnes and I looked forward to get on the ridge proper and enjoy sunshine, snow and the fjord view. Karma was in 7th heaven, it seemed. Her love for fresh snow cannot be overestimated.
This route offers one of the most spectacular skiing routes around here, but it’s seldom the right combination of good weather, enough snow and good snow.
When we reached the top, it was clear that we couldn’t just turn around now. We had to enjoy this snow to the fullest.
So, we sat course for Keipen and I figured that we could just hike down from there, like we often do.
But, under the fresh snow was a hard sole – offering no grips whatsoever. Hence, being in the steep hillside could easily result in an unwanted slide.
To be on the safe side, we followed the ridge until it was possible to descend without slipping. I had never been down there before and was happy about getting “new tracks” for my GPS map (which I’ve been collecting since ’99).
Then it was time to get back home and get the house “in shape” before Anne got there…
Trip statistics: 7km, 650 vertical meters, 2h:03m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
Haugshornet (431m), Mar 31 2022
Thursday: After work, Anne and I talked about where we should walk the dog. Anne wanted to walk on the sunny side, and I proposed that we could hike the path from Haugsbygda to Arskotet and take the rest from there. This would be a new route for Anne.
There was still snow on the forest tractor road, but when we got on the path, it was as good as free of snow. Anne felt a little tired and then my #1 option – Storetua – was out of the question. As option #2, we could hike across Nørdbergsheida and we started moving upwards.
However, the terrain was cumbersome (and wet) and it was difficult to enjoy it. So, we sat course for Haugshornet instead.
As we no longer were in south-facing terrain, we had to walk in snow. As it wasn’t too much of it, it was purely enjoyable.
Karma was in no need of human contact…
Then we reached the top of Haugshornet.
We followed the normal route down. It was almost sad to leave the snow.
Back in the car, on our way home, we drove into another snow shower. Of course, this lovely weather couldn’t last long…
Trip statistics: 6,2km, 480 vertical meters, 2h:17m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
Rjåhornet (600m), Apr 1 2022
Friday: Anne went to Runde early in the day (park ranger stuff) and brought Karma. When my working day ended, they had not returned yet and I decided to go on a walk all by myself.
This would be the perfect time to pick a savvy and steep route, but as it was Friday afternoon – and Anne would soon return from Runde, I just decided to hike Rjåhornet.
I have a special love for this mountain, and I’ve been up there more than 300 times. My goal is never to visit any special mountain many times, as my primary goal is to visit new mountains. But a new mountain means traveling a long way and with my current workload (at work), the price of diesel these days – and awareness of my environmental footprint in general – the local mountains will do nicely.
Halfway up the mountain, I decided to do a variation to my normal routes that I hadn’t done before. Small things like that just make my day. And the snow was beautiful to walk on. I really enjoyed myself.
The weather was back to beautiful and the only way this would get any better was if I were on a much higher mountain, with skis on. Many of my friends were wise enough to take the day off and go skiing in the Sunnmøre alps. Taking the day off is a luxury I don’t have these days…
No complaints, though. I have views like this…
On the way down, I tried another variation to the route that I shouldn’t have. I ended up in a dense forest and literally had to fight my way out of it.
I had a good working day, a good hike. Now I would hit the shower and then Anne would serve Taco. I would get a beer and then we would watch TV the rest of the evening. Better treasure days like these. They are not guaranteed…
Trip statistics: 6,3km, 610 vertical meters, 1h:55m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the trip:
Rambjøra (132m), Apr 2 2022
Saturday: Miserable weather and snow showers. Most of the snow melted as it touched the ground and so it felt like a big waste altogether. There would be no big walk today. We had invited friends for home made Sushi in the evening and we had to go to Ulsteinvik to get ingredients and not to mention making the Sushi.
Every time we go to Ulsteinvik, we also go to the Ossanden beach to let Karma run in the sand.
Back home, we found the time to walk across my local top Rambjøra.
This path was a disaster when I decided to give it extra attention. The path from my house to the top is well maintained. The other side is still a disaster, and it would take me weeks to make it look like a maintained path. I don’t have those weeks in me just yet…
Trip statistics: 3,9km, 170 vertical meters, 1h:01m
Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the trip:
Rambjøra (132m), Apr 3 2022
Sunday: A bit of a slow start this morning due to a very nice evening with friends. As the weather didn’t offer any great inspiration, I decided to make this a trail maintenance day. Anne and Karma volunteered, and so did the neighbor kid (11 years old)
I brought a backpack of newly painted sticks – with reflexes – aiming to swap out the old ones. In summer, we would repaint and replace worn out reflex on the trail, but paint just doesn’t try up easily when it’s snowing every day.
Furthermore, we had a lot of bush-ripping to do, as well as trying to mend some of the wet areas.
It was nice to get this path in better order, as Rambjøra will be on the Herøy-top-10 list this year. This list will attract a lot of hikers.
After reaching the top, we took the same route back down and was quite happy with today’s effort.
Trip statistics: 3,8km, 150 vertical meters, 3h:17m
What does Haagshornet mean in English (not cheating by looking it up on the internet!)?My guess something like High Peak?A hornet of course in English is a very unpleasant stinging insect but you have the Matterhorn in Switzerland, another guess Mother Peak?So I’m guessing horn is peak? Trying to piece things together from other Indo European languages is a hobby of mine and useful when traveling but don’t try deciphering a railway timetable in Finland or Hungary as you’ll be staring at it all day!
Hi Kevan. Haugshornet is a weird name. Translated it would be something like “Hill horn”. Which is stupid. Either it’s a hill or it’s a “horn” (a pointy and distinct top) – or as you say – a peak. Or as I say – “horny hill”. Languages are fun 😉
Thanks for that and I also took the liberty of looking up what Matterhorn means,my first guess mother mountain,but it means the Mountain above the Meadow.Matter might be old German as I see 3 words meaning meadow now;die Wiese,die Weide or die Flur in modern German.I was surprised at the height of the Matterhorn as I was expecting 3000 or so metres but an amazing 4478m! Seriously high!Horn isn’t used in English for a mountain;in the north fell is popular from Norwegian, mountain from French and some Celtic names like Pen which comes from an extinct language called Cumbric and related to the Irish and Scottish for mountain Bhein.