Pretty much a grey weather week…
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP |
| 23.05.22 | Kiberget | 438m | 65m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 23.05.22 | Breifjellet | 424m | 56m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 24.05.22 | Garnestua | 653m | 415m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 25.05.22 | Myklebusthornet | 329m | 329m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP |
| 26.05.22 | Hornet | 695m | 182m | Volda, Norway | WCP |
| 27.05.22 | Røddalshorn | 563m | 100m | Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 28.05.22 | Årvikveten | 458m | 205m | Sande, Norway | WCP |
| 29.05.22 | Leinebjørnen | 271m | 108m | Herøy, Norway | WCP |
| 29.05.22 | Leinehornet | 364m | 364m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
Kiberget (438m), Breifjellet (424m), May 23 2022
Monday: When I’m all washed out after the weekend and Monday’s work, I often find it nice to just go hiking in the hills behind Ulsteinvik. I can go as far as I want and combine a number of different routes. And especially when the weather is unpredictable. Then I can just get off the mountain on short notice.
Today, I just started walking from Bugarden. Karma was clearly getting better – at least on the trail, albeit not so good back home. She’s drinking on her own now, but not a lot. I need to make sure she gets enough fluid and I have some tricks up my sleeve.
After a little while, I decided that our destination would be Kiberget. Any longer hike in the rain wasn’t tempting.
As we approached Kiberget, I noticed that there been a wildfire, and by the smell of it – recently!
Karma found this odd smell intriguing. For me, it felt like a smell that would stick for days.
My leg was aching, and it had been for days. I can’t figure out what is wrong with it, other than it’s pure muscular. Uphill is fine, flats are annoying, and downhills are bad.
Karma is still drooling when we get to a top. My guess is that as long as here tongue isn’t working, she’s not able to control her body temperature. That – plus the fact that treats are awaiting – could be the reason. But what do I know. She’s never behaved this way before…
We headed down from Kiberget and I decided to return via Breifjellet and Skeidshornet. Normally, I would have stretched this round way more than 10km, but now I just wanted the hike to end and took the shortest route back down.
Trip statistics: 8,3km, 485 vertical meters, 1h:58m
Garnestua (654m), May 24 2022
Tuesday: Again, totally washed out after an intense work day. I had to take a rest after work but was able to “talk myself up” during the rest. I found the motivation to take the dog for a walk, but it was raining. Bummer.
I got in the car and just started driving. The rain stopped and I decided to drive to Haddal and start hiking towards Garnestua. This is one of Karma’s favorite hikes, as she spotted a hare here some 6-7 years ago.
Her interest won’t be fading any time soon, as they have rabbits at the trailhead. A bit up in the forest, two large forest birds flew up, close to the path. Karma got all fired up and didn’t notice that it started raining again. Heavily! But I wasn’t about to turn around now.
When we exited the forest, it stopped raining and it seemed that that the rain wouldn’t return for a while. We had a nice walk up the mountain and along the ridge to the top.
Foot still aching, but I decided that a descent via Flåna and lake Garnesvatnet would be in order.
On our way from the lake and back to the forest trail, a hare ran for its life in front of Karma – totally perplexed. I think the hare had confidence in its summer camouflage, because it stopped in our plain sight – probably thinking it was invisible. Karma really wanted to pay the hare a visit, but I gave her “no-go” signal and she came along with her head hanging low.
This was one of those days when I was mighty pleased with myself, overcoming fatigue and zero interest in being outdoors.
Trip statistics: 7,3km, 685 vertical meters, 1h:57m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Myklebusthornet (329m), May 24 2022
Wednesday: Ålesund day, and as I couldn’t get off work before rush hour started, I drove in the opposite direction, through the Ellingsøya tunnel with no particular place to go.
Along the way, I decided to hike Myklebusthornet from Vik. I don’t think I’ve hiked Ellingsøya island’s high point from this trailhead before. I’ve definitely hiked Vikanakken from here, but probably not Myklebusthornet.
After a nice forest trail up to Kleiva, we got onto the ridge westbound toward Myklebusthornet. Karma wasn’t on fire today. Maybe it was the high temperature and a combination of other things playing part.
We went to the Vet today and after an examination, we both concluded that she was officially well again. Not that I have any skills on the matter, but I can read her pretty well and that counts too. But in general, she’s never on fire when she had to spend the day in the car.
I had a nice chat with a couple on point 320m, which they told me was called “Sperrenakken” locally. I had always thought of this point as “not the high point”.
Eventually, we reached the high point and I had to decide on how we should get back to the car. I considered going down to the soccer field (north side), but that would mean 3,5km along a paved road to Volstad before we could get back on a trail.
Instead, we took the path that took us down to the water reservoir and prepared myself for 1,7km along a paved road.
But close to the reservoir I noticed a path I didn’t know about and decided to follow it. Maybe it would take us back to the trail we came up? This path turned into a myriad of paths, and I understood that the local biking enthusiasts were developing biking trails.
After a while, I realized that the paths were going back up on the mountain and we tried to get through the forest, off-trail. Eventually we had to give up and descend to Sperre (it was a dreadful descent). But we only got 1,4km along the paved road.
Trip statistics: 8km, 445 vertical meters, 2h:11m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Hornet (695m), May 26 2022
Thursday: Ascension Day, and day off from work. Well, not really. I put in a couple of hours in the morning, also chatting with a colleague in Poland. She was wondering why they were not having this day off, country being 99% catholic (she said) …
Then I spent a couple of hours of blogging. Damned 2021 backlog. I could have skipped that year entirely, but I still want the pictures to be online and so…
If the weather had been great, I would probably have left 4am in the morning and drove 3 hours somewhere where I could get myself a few new mountain tops. But it was raining, and I had to start looking for a place to walk the dog.
As I do the Homborset – Hornet – Vadsteinsætra hike at least once a year, I figured I might as well do it today. It’s a nice round-trip hike and sometimes I can do variations. If it hadn’t rained as much, I could for instance also have visited Skarphornet.
The route begins between at Homborset, between the Rotset and Hjartåberg tunnels and climbs steeply up the forest along a good path. I just passed through an aggressive rain shower but was now in the clear.
At ~455m, we passed Homborsætra, getting Hornet in plain view. Another rain shower came upon us and I considered waiting it out under a tree. But we moved on and it didn’t last long.
The next rain shower came as we were close to the top. And this time, the shower didn’t go away until we were back down.
After passing the top, we continued down to Vadsteinsætra. With the rain and the wind, I found it a bit chilly. And then I noticed a young man come jogging up the mountain, in a t-shirt and shorts!
Something old and buried came to life, and I started jogging down the steep mountainside. This was risk sport, as a) my sneakers were all worn out, no grip, b) the ground and rocks were slippery and c) my bad foot challenged my balance. The chance of taking a fall was huge and hence why it’s so fun.
We got back down safe and sound, though…
Trip statistics: 5,7km, 675 vertical meters, 1h:42m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Røddalshorn (563m), May 27 2022
Friday: At lunch, I took a trip to Ulsteinvik (a 10-minute drive) to get a bottle of wine as Anne was coming up from Sogndal. And like always when we’re in town, Karma got to run in the sand at the Osnessanden beach.
After work, I drove up to Leikongeidet to do a round trip hike via Aurvollegga and Røddalshorn. Shortly after we headed out from the trailhead, Anne called and said she was in Stryn and would be at my place in 1,5 hours. If I were to guess, that’s about what our round-trip hike would take, and so we would get there roughly at the same time.
We followed the main road to the shooting range exit and then followed the Aurvollegga ridge. It had been raining most of the day, and I was very happy that we got a break from it now.
I do enjoy Aurvollegga. The path isn’t very distinct, but easy enough to follow.
From Aurvollegga, there is no path (that I know of) towards Røddalshorn. Just pick your off-trail route!
I chose the steepest one that didn’t require scrambling.
Once up on the mountain, I had a feeling it would start raining soon, but we were almost on top and so I didn’t care much about it.
When we got to the top, I chose to hike the normal route down to the car. After a few minutes it started raining. The hike took 1h:29m, so my 1,5-hour estimate wasn’t all that bad. I stopped for groceries on the way home and came home just a few minutes after Anne had arrived…
Anne surprised me with a precious present. I love those movies!
Trip statistics: 5,6km, 455 vertical meters, 1h:29m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Årvikveten (458m), May 28 2022
Saturday: After breakfast, I had a 3-hour work session. As it was raining, I didn’t mind one bit. But eventually it was time to walk the dog and so Anne and I decided to go to Drageskaret and do a hike from there. It had stopped raining where I live, and then we drove into rain at Leikongeidet, but only to leave it when we got to the Gursken fjord.
We chose to hike towards Årvikveten (aka “Veten”), which seemed not to be wrapped up in fog.
It’s a nice and easy 3,3km hike to the top, along a good path.
Just before the final climb up to the top of Veten, the fog came – along with wind and rain.
Rather than hiking the same route back, we descended to lake Nyksvatnet and followed the path to the “Gapahuk”. From here, we went off-trail for 0,6km until we joined the “Råkja” trail and followed it back to Larsnes.
I told Anne that she could go to the local gas station and enjoy a cup of coffee (there is a small café there) while Karma and I went back up to Drageskaret (1,8km) to pick up the car. She appreciated the offer…
Trip statistics: 10,4km, 630 vertical meters, 2h:50m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Samsung Galaxy S21 5G) from the hike:
Leinebjørnen (271m), Leinehornet (366m), May 29 2022
Sunday: Yet another miserable weather day, and Anne and I spent the first part of it in front of our computers. Closer to 1pm, the weather seemed to get slightly better, and Anne told me that the forecast indicated a 2-hour period without rain.
I suggested that we should go to Leinøya, as I wanted to repeat my March 29 round across Leinebjørnen and Leinehornet. Anne hadn’t done this particular walk before and I assumed she would enjoy it.
We went up Leinebjørnen’s west ridge and really enjoyed the absence of rain!
From Leinebjørnen, we followed the high path in the direction of Leinebjørnen, watching the fog creeping in.
As we got closer to Leinehornet, I wanted to do a variation of the route and we followed the Vasseidet path before getting on the path that ascends Leinehornet from the east.
There wasn’t much to see (other than the cairn) from Leinehornet.
We followed one of the paths leading to Leine and then followed the road back to the car. It started raining when we reached the main road and only had to endure few minutes of rain.
A few hours later, we went to Snorrebuda in Ulsteinvik for dinner with our good friends Lena and Terje. After dinner, we went to the local cinema to see Top Gun Maverick. Holy cow, what a great movie! Driving home, I looked forward to a couple of sunny days!
Trip statistics: 7,7km, 550 vertical meters, 2h:13m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
