One more week of painting sticks (and some fun facts from 1998)…
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | |
| 07.06.21 | Sandvikshornet | 352m | 14m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | |
| 07.06.21 | Rysseviktua | 452m | 34m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | |
| 08.06.21 | Sollia | 661m | 661m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 09.06.22 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 10.06.21 | Skåla | 184m | 497m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | |
| 11.06.22 | Hasundhornet | 533m | 93m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
| 12.06.22 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP |
| 13.06.22 | Skolma | 636m | 483m | Hareid/ Ulstein, Norway | WCP |
Sandvikhornet (352m), Rysseviktua (452m), June 7 2021
June is mostly about trail maintenance. That’s just how it is. Most of the snow is gone and the summer visitors are just around the corner.
Today, I continued my painting session on the Sandvikhornet – Rysseviktua route. The altitude is not so high, but it’s exposed to the coastal weather and fresh paint was overdue.
To be quite honest, I’d much rather go scrambling on some crazy narrow ridge in the Sunnmøre alps, but I just have to do this work. Otherwise, life gets too easy, the me-me-me life. Can’t have that.
But once in that zone, I do find pleasure in helping people find safe passage across our coastal mountains. The lack of information, marking, etc. was the very reason why I started up westcoastpeaks.com back in 1998.
As for westcoastpeaks.com, I’ll share some info with you. When I was working in Silicon Graphics, we were all of a sudden rushed to Mallorca and put in a giant showroom. There were 3 huge screens, each showing a ‘W‘.
So, what’s up with the 3 W’s, or is it WWW? An hour later, we had been told that Silicon Graphics would be the world leader in the World Wide Web. I had email of course, but this was all new to me.
Back in Norway, I studied the technology hard and was a fully qualified web developer before 1997 passed.
I then decided to give up my “Leisure Larry” life in Oslo and sought a new life. After thinking about what that life would be about, I decided on traveling. After visiting all the US states (1998-1999) I decided to become a mountain man, move to western Norway (Bergen) and start the mountain-thing from scratch.
There was no info to be found about mountains or trails, and so I decided to something about it. I created the blog late in ‘98 (it was called a home page back then) and documented every walk I made. I was Inspired by my good friend Petter Bjørstad and his home page of mountain walks (he is still posting the high peaks of the world!).
And if you clicked on the westcoastpeaks link and took a quick look at it and thought – hey – “this is a genuine 1998 look” – then that’s what exactly what it is…
Trip statistics: 7km, 480 vertical meters, 2h:16m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Sollia (661m), June 8 2021
The goal for today was Sollia – the highest mountain on Gurskøya island. The weather was still great and perfect for painting sticks – high temperature and a mild breeze.
We started out from Leikongeidet and I started painting at 500m. I had developed a good technique and was on my way to the next stick before Karma had settled. A penny for her thoughts…
Trip statistics: 9,5km, 650 vertical meters, 2h:50m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Rjåhornet (600m), June 9 2021
I was almost finished with the painting, and had only the Leikong – Rjåhornet route left, in addition to Skåla – which I planned to do the next day.
I really looked forward to go hiking without a paintbrush and a ketchup bottle again…
Trip statistics: 6,6km, 670 vertical meters, 2h:40m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Skåla (184m), June 10 2021
The very last day of painting this time. As Skåla is a fairly short hike, I decided to bring the lopper to do some good on the Sandvikhornet trail.
Trip statistics: 3,6km, 215 vertical meters, 2 hours
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Hasundhornet (533m), June 11 2021
And then came the rain…
When I don’t find inspiration to go out in the rain, I normally end up on the gravel road up to Hasundhornet. At least I can get to the top without getting my feet wet. It doesn’t matter if I get wet feet when I take a different route back down.
“Wet feet?” you say? Shouldn’t a guy that hike as much as I do have proper footwear? Well, as I hike a lot, I also wear out several pairs of boots per year. And with a price of 2000-3000 NOK per pair, I aim to use them until they fall apart…
Trip statistics: 3,7km, 235 vertical meters, 45 mins
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Rambjøra (132m), June 12 2021
I can’t really recall this day, one year later. But hiking my local forest top on a Saturday either means the weather was bad or I was commited to system maintenance at work. As the pictures aren’t all grey, I’m guessing on the latter.
What I do know is that I see my lopper on the picture, which means trail maintenance…
Trip statistics: 2,5km, 120 vertical meters, 2h:10m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Skolma (636m), June 13 2021
I do remember this one. The plan was to hike from Kvitneset (Hareidlandet) to Flø and then return via Skolma. But just as we headed out from Kvitneset, it started to rain. As I wasn’t too keen on kilometers of slippery rocks I came up with a plan B.
Plan B was to hike up Skolmedalen – a direct route to Skolma. I’ve done this route a couple of times before and while it looks steep and unfriendly it’s not too bad.
It this route catches your interest, here’s a little info: Head up on the right-hand side of the river. When it gets too steep to continue, seek right and curve around the problem. Some steep grass may apply. Back at the river, cross it and stay on the left-hand side – aiming for a route that just presents itself and that brings you to the upper part of the valley. From here, it’s an easy hike up to Skolma.
Upon descent, I chose to head to Saudebønakken and follow the steep path down to Brandal. It just looks steep. There are no scary parts. Once down in Brandal, we had 2km along the road to Kvitneset before we got to the car.
Trip statistics: 9,1km, 700 vertical meters, 2h:34m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
