A wonderful ski-trip on Sognefjellet!
| Top | Height | PF | Municipality |
| Veslbreatinden | 2092m | 118m | Lom, Norway |
Monday: For days, we knew that this last day of Pentecost would be a stunning weather day and Anne really wanted to go skiing. Preferably on Sognefjellet. As the tops up there are for the most part rugged and not too dog-friendly, we agreed on a no-brainer: Veslbreatinden – straight up from Krossbu.
We both had the day off, but I was on-call and had to bring the PC in the car. Hoping that nothing out of the ordinary would happen. But if the shit would hit the fan, I would be just one fast ski-descent away from the rescue…
But the first part of the day was quiet at work as we drove from Sogndal towards Krossbu. The weather forecast wasn’t wrong!
Driving up past Turtagrø and further up the Sognefjellet road was magical as always.
As expected, there were a lot of cars parked at Krossbu, but we managed to find a spot where we wouldn’t have to drown in mud. A few minutes later, we were on our way up the mountain.
We didn’t know the terrain and we didn’t look at the GPS for advice. We just followed the tracks upwards, assuming they would take us to Veslbreatinden.
We soon caught up with a couple that we chatted with. It turned out that the guy was from Søndre Land (where Anne is from), and Anne knew his mother well. It’s a small world…
It was really nice to see the peaks surrounding Leirbrean glacier from this angle. Store Smørstabbtind looked steep from here, but not so much from higher up. The next time we’re here, that’s where we’ll go!
Veslbreatinden was indeed a no-brainer. There wasn’t one scary place along the route. We chose a steep short-cut that we easily could have bypassed.
At around 1800m, I noticed that I was a bit short of breath. I am completely useless when it comes to altitude, in all respects. That’s really a disadvantage when you’re a mountain man!
We reached the top 2h:10m after heading out. The views were breathtaking!
It was nice to see the Smørstabbtindan peaks from a different angle. It was also nice to see Storebjørn again – visited 4 years earlier – on a similar wonderful day!
I took a panorama picture and really wanted to annotate it with all the peaks. But I don’t have the time right now. Back in the days, I used to love to spend 2-3 evenings figuring out what I was seeing in the distance. Like this example from Galdhøpiggen.
It was also nice to see Galdhøpiggen (Norway’s highest mountain on the mainland) and the other dominating peaks across Leirdalen valley. Suddenly, I got a bunch of memories when Petter, Pål Jørgen and I spent a couple of days on Illåbrean glacier back in 2002!
I’m dying to climb the Leirbrean peaks – Store Smørstabbtind, Kniven, Sokse, Veslebjørn. That will have to be in a post-Karma era. But the dreams are indeed there!
But my #1 goal in Norway is to do the traverse across the Styggedal- and Skagastøls ridges in the Hurrungane region. I’ve been to Store Skagastølstind (Norway’s 3rd highest peak), but the traverse is legendary and challenging.
Then it was time for the descent. The upper part of the mountain was big fun! The snow carried Karma’s weight and the skis were flying!
Further down, the snow was much worse. I don’t know the English expression for when the skis are glued to the snow and you fall flat on your face. And in that type of snow, Karma is struggling.
But we made it back down safe and sound and could yet another memorable ski-descent to our CV.
The drive home was also enjoyable. We drove to Luster and hiked Hærishovden (526m) – will be covered in the weekly report…
Trip statistics: 10,3km, 830 vertical meters, 3h:27m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/ Samsung Galaxy S21 5G) from the hike:
