A mix of everything this week…
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| 02.05.22 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 03.05.22 | Garnestua | 653m | 415m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 03.05.22 | Hasundhornet | 533m | 93m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 04.05.22 | Slettheia | 553m | 49m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 05.05.22 | Røvhaugane | 160m | 0m | Sogndal, Norway | |
| 06.05.22 | Kaupangsholtane | 423m | 65m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP |
| 07.05.22 | Skjolden | – | – | Luster, Norway | – |
| 08.05.22 | Slutenosi | 1504m | 122m | Lærdal, Norway | – |
Rambjøra (132m), May 2 2022
Monday: I seem to be “out of steam” on Mondays in general, and perhaps it’s got to do with the extended hiking in the weekends. I felt no inspiration to go hiking today, and especially in this weather – rain, wind and hail (!) I figured I might as well go and have another maintenance session on the Rambjøra trail…
If I’m lucky, I can perhaps do 50 meters in an hour. There is no point cutting with the lopper, as the bush will back in 2-3 years. Those buggers have to come up with the roots and it’s hard work. It’s the perfect exercise, if you ask me. It’s not a single part of the body that isn’t involved in getting the root up from the ground…
The weather got really nasty along the way, and we returned home soaking wet…
Trip statistics: 3,5km, 135 vertical meters, 1h:50m
Garnestua (653m), Hasundhornet (533m), May 3 2022
Tuesday: After work, I sat course for Leikongeidet to do a round trip across Røddalshorn. But at Leikong, I could see that the weather higher up as not good at all. Looking back on the Hareidlandet tops – they looked OK and so I turned the car around.
I reckoned that I could hike Hasundhornet from Garsholhaugen (on path) before the crappy weather would catch up with us and that became my plan.
At 350m elev., there was still no rain and then I changed my plan. First, hike up to Flåna (613m) and if still in the clear – continue to Garnestua.
I hit fresh snow at around 500m, and it was a bit odd to walk in fresh snow, observe rain (or snow?) showers at Leikong and be hiking at this elevation without my jacket on.
The weather was still OK at Flåna, and in fact I felt it got gradually better and then we continued to Garnestua. It’s not often I hike this top from Garsholhaugen. Maybe just once before.
The time was almost 5pm. I had to be at a meeting at 7pm, but felt I had enough time to also pay Hasundhornet a visit, get back home, feed the dog and take a shower before the meeting with my local trail committee.
The hike over to Hasundhornet is always wet and boggy and not really fun. But it was nice to reach the top and enjoy the views.
We took the normal route back to Garsholhaugen and were back at the car 6pm sharp.
Trip statistics: 7,6km, 750 vertical meters, 2h:04m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Slettheia (552m), May 4 2022
Wednesday: At yesterday’s meeting with my local trail committee, we discussed the path on the north side of Øyraelva river (on Gurskøy island). I had hiked this route some years ago, but I wouldn’t really call it a path. It used to be a tractor road, decades ago. But apparently, it had been recently maintained and so I decided to have a look.
We started out in Sandvika and followed the road and path up to the foot of Sandvikhornet. We have a signpost pointing towards Øyraelva, but that’s on the south side and it’s not a path our group maintains. It’s not marked either. But we assumed the signpost could be helpful for those who wanted to do the trip and maybe we would mark this route in the future.
The path was quite overgrown, and I could only see vague signs of maintenance. This path would need a LOT of maintenance, should I ever decided to mark it.
I was able to (more or less) follow the path all the way up to lake Øyravatnet and concluded that it had potential. And now that we were here, I figured we could pay a visit to Slettheia and check out the paint on the sticks. How did they look after two winters?
We headed off-trail to the top of Slettheia and concluded that there was still paint on the sticks. Maybe, just maybe I didn’t have to repaint this route this summer.
And now the rain sat in. Combined with the wind, it was sort of unpleasant and so we headed down. Still off-trail, and now aiming for the path on the south side of the river.
This path also requires a lot of maintenance, but not as much as the path on the other side of the river. There is a river crossing here that could be tricky after lots of rain. But all in all, this could be a nice round-trip route – but only to Øyravatnet. Not beyond. Birds are nesting around the lake and there is a pair of swans that I don’t want to see disturbed.
Trip statistics: 6,8km, 540 vertical meters, 1h:40m
Røvhaugane, May 5 2022
Thursday: Returning to Sogndal – a 3,5-hour drive today. As I was approaching Sogndal, I called Anne and asked if she wanted to join me for a walk across Røvhaugane – as Karma needed a walk. I picked her up on a bus-stop just before Sogndal and then we drove up to the Røvhaugane trailhead.
Like always, we followed the path up to Åberge.
The usual round trip route via Kongaberget was not in scope today, as the sheep and lambs were out. So, from Åberge we followed the main road down. As this road is not so fun, we looked for a path through the forest. According to Anne, there was one. She didn’t exactly remember where it was, though.
We found something that could potentially be a path, but it wasn’t. I saw an excellent opportunity for some off-trail hiking and cover some new ground in the Sogndal region.
It would be drastic to call this off-trail route fun, but at least we found an avalanche barrier (against rock, now snow) in the midst of the forest.
Then, home for Taco…
Trip statistics: 2,7km, 180 vertical meters, 55 mins
Kaupangsholtane (423m), May 6 2022
Friday: It had been raining all day and workwise, I had a 10/10 day on the shit-scale. Everything that could go wrong, did. I was dead meat when the workday ended, and Anne didn’t have a lot of energy to bring to the table either…
But we agreed to drive to Kaupanger and walk across Kaupangsholtane.
The good news was that it wasn’t raining as much here, and we had a nice walk through this part of the Kaupanger forest.
We all had a good time in the forest, and we returned home with a better conscience than we had before the walk.
Trip statistics: 4,7km, 250 vertical meters, 1h:21m
Skjolden, May 7 2022
Saturday: No hiking today. I woke up with a headache. It’s been a while since last time, and I had a good feeling about why it was this way. Work was getting slightly stressful again, and today I had the task of being the photographer at a confirmation.
Taking lots of pictures doesn’t make me a photographer! Mother nature does 50% of the work, the camera does the other half. I just point and click the button. And a confirmation only happens once in a lifetime. I did feel the pressure.
The first task was to take pictures in the Sogndal theatre– where the confirmation (human ethical) would take place. The second task was to be the photographer at Skjolden hotel – where we would spend the rest of the evening.
The plan was to do a walk before returning to Sogndal, but it got too late before we left Skjolden, and Karma would just have to settle for the short walks in neighborhood during her long evening stay in the car outside the hotel…
Slutenosi (1504m), May 8 2022
Sunday: As the weather was better than forecasted, we decided to go skiing. And Slutenosi on Filefjell would be the target. This top was on my “afternoon list”, thinking I could drive from Sogndal after work and do a quick hike up and down. But a ski-trip with the family would surely be a better alternative.
We started from the same trailhead that once took us to Berdalseken in 2011 and Loppenosi in 2021. Slutenosi was straight ahead but it was too steep to ski straight up.
We skied into Slutedalen valley, which we also followed on our way to Berdalseken. It was quite flat and as we also descended slightly, this was not really a good place for skiing upon our return.
After a while it was time to start climbing towards the top. The terrain was nice and gentle. No steep parts. The snow carried Karma’s weight and I lost count of the number of rolls…
Anne suddenly lost all her energy and had to bite her teeth together in order to get to the top. I’m so glad I’m not suffering from this phenomenon. I still remember how it felt like when I was diagnosed with hypothyreosis back in 2008. I couldn’t get of bed for 3 days…
But she is a fighter…
Now that I’m not visiting 100 new peaks every year any more, I maybe appreciating each new one a little bit more. In any case, I was really happy to be up here – with my family.
We could see several distinct tops from the summit. Høgeloft and Suletind were easy to spot. So were Falketind and Uranostind. And those who know the Jotunheimen mountains in and out would probably recognize a dozen more. I’m pretty sure I could see Torfinnstindane, but for the rest I would have to look at the map.
We decided to descend into Vetle Frostdalen valley. This is the valley we came down from Berdalseken, but I had forgotten everything about that descent. The snow on the north side of Slutenosi was hard as ice, but finally we could enjoy good snow down in the valley.
The valley is a bit flat in the upper part, so one should pick a route that keeps the skis going without having to use the poles a lot.
In the final hill, the snow was softer, and Karma struggled a little bit. Anne and I had a mighty good time!
I felt a bit sad when the trip was over, but I’ll soon be back in this region. There are 4 pf100 tops nearby and I haven’t been to Suletind and Bleia yet either!
On our way home, we stopped at Lærdalsøyri and enjoyed our stay in the old part of this lovely village…
Trip statistics: 11,1km, 615 vertical meters, 2h:45m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
