Good walks in Sunnmøre, Sogn and Nordfjord
Note the new “MAP” column in the index below.
Index
| Date | Peak/Place | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | norgeskart.no |
| 19.09.22 | Togga | 1205m | 15m | Sogndal, Norway | – | MAP |
| 20.09.22 | Årheimsfjellet | 1007m | 177m | Stryn, Norway | – | MAP |
| 21.09.22 | Melshornet | 807m | 564m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 23.09.22 | Laupsnipa | 562m | 385m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 24.09.22 | Kvamfjellet | 774m | 536m | Stad, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 25.09.22 | Måsegga | 991m | 51m | Volda, Norway | – | MAP |
Togga (1205m), Sep 19 2022
Monday: Nothing is like starting the week with a 1000m+ mountain, and especially when it’s sunny in Sogndal and it is pouring down back home on Sunnmøre. As it had been a couple of years since I’ve hiked Togga, that’s where I decided to go after work.
Togga is a popular skiing top in winter and a bloody tough hike in summer – if you enjoy “pacing it”. It’s just one, long and unforgiving uphill…
But once you’re above the forest, the views make the hike a little easier…
We did the 800 vertical meter ascent in 52 minutes, without putting in any extra gears, plus stopping for pictures. Which makes me cling to the hope that I can still do 1000 meters within the hour if I’m serious about it. I need to stop bragging about it on this blog and go and prove it one day. I did the 1300m ascent of Saudehornet in 1h:10m back in 2016. And during “Skåla Opp” in 2014, the first 1000m (of 1800m) was done in 55 minutes. So it’s not as if I haven’t ever done it. But can I ever get there again?
It’s not as if 1000m/1 hour is an astounding time. I would still be ~20 minutes behind the young people. But I’m turning 60 next year, and the physical decline is inevitable. You just have to find happiness in what you’re able to do…
Today’s happiness was primarily about the views…
This time, I went over to the east side of Togga to get a good view of the Sogndalsdalen valley…
And then it was time to head back down…
Trip statistics: 5,3km, 795 vertical meters, 1h:46m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Årheimsfjellet (1007m), Sep 20 2022
Tuesday: After work, it was time to return to Sunnmøre. Anne was heading for Italy for a Yoga vacation later in the evening so there was no reason to stay in Sogndal.
After stopping in Loen to buy some new hiking shoes, I headed for Oppheim to hike Årheimsfjellet – which I hadn’t been to since 2014.
Due to the massive development related to the Hoven gondola, the road to Hoven, etc., I had to re-familiarize myself. The parking was no longer at Oppheim, but higher up. And it costed NOK 85, – to park. I didn’t mind contributing as the effort up here has been enormous. Loen is truly on the map now, with Hotel Alexandra, the Via Ferrata, the Loen Skylift, the vast trail system and the Skåla mountain nearby.
We headed out from the parking and crossed the Hoven road 3 times before we got onto the forest path.
I *sort of* remembered the terrain above me – Oppheimsætra and Raksætra. But this time we went straight up and didn’t pass Raksætra on the way up. I was a bit disappointed that the forest path connected to the Hoven road a couple of times. I just didn’t want to hear cars going up!
Above Oppheimsætra, the trail was really impressive! It was almost too much…
But I certainly won’t complain about a good path…
We followed the nice path up to the pass (Nøkketjønna) between Årheimsfjellet and Skredfjellet before turning west towards Årheimsfjellet. The path now resembled more of a typical mountain path, partly muddy and just nice…
It took us a «whooping» 1h:07m to reach the top. I really wanted to hike in less than one hour, but this was not a direct route to the top. It didn’t ruin my day, though.
I had heard reports above fresh snow in the mountains, and now I could see for myself…
From the top, we descended to the north until we had a fine view above Stryn.
Afterwards, we headed back up to the summit ridge, but instead of following the same route down, we continued across the ridge until we had the Nordfjord in clear view. Here, we found a path that I assumed would lead us to Raksætra.
It did.
There was a lot of people at Raksætra – a popular hiking destination. From Raksætra, we followed a well maintained path until we joined our ascent route.
This was a very nice hike, and the remaining drive back to Sunnmøre got all that much easier…
Trip statistics: 7,8km, 790 vertical meters, 2 hours
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Melshornet (807m), Sep 21 2022
Wednesday: After work, I drove to Ørsta to feel the pain of hiking Melshornet in a fast pace. No running, just hiking fast – only stopping for pictures.
We headed out from Rystefeltet and followed the path into Osdalen before going up to “Pølsa”. I quickly ran out of steam, and the pace wasn’t impressive at all. But at least I tried…
The view from Pølsa is awesome. Almost better than from Melshornet summit.
The leg from Pølsa over to Melshornet is a leg you typically jog when you’re in shape. There was no jogging for me today!
The final 200 vertical meters are brutal when you’re already tired. But soon the pain would be over…
It was SO nice to reach the top. As a minimum, I had hoped to reach the top within the hour, but I couldn’t even manage that. 1h:06m – including pictures. No worries, though. I’ll come back one day and KILL this route!
It was Karma’s 10th birthday today, so she got an “extra bonus” on top.
It feels like forever since she came into our lives. With almost 900 different pf100 tops, she has “been around”. I just hope she has been happy. It’s hard to tell, as this breed has only one expression for happiness, joy, sickness, pain, etc. But I choose to think she’s lived a good life.
Upon descent, I chose to follow a route I’ve only done once before. Down along the Volda municipality border – and to lake Dinglavatnet. It had been 4 years since I first did this route, and I couldn’t remember that there was a path!
From Dinglavatnet, we continued down to Ossætra and further down in Osdalen I met a couple of guys maintaining the path. We talked “shop” for a good while before returning to the car.
Trip statistics: 6,3km, 670 vertical meters, 2h:05m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Laupsnipa (562m), Sep 23 2022
Friday: So, what happened to Thursday? I’ll tell you.
It started by Karma acting restless in the evening. I couldn’t figure out what it was, took her on the evening walk and went to bed. But less than one hour later, she came over to my bed and stared at me. That stare is always bad news. I let her outside and soon heard that nasty noise of brown fluid pouring out of her behind.
And of course, when it rains it pours. She had to go out *every hour* for the rest of the night. When my working day begain, I was totally dead meat and Karma seemed … “spent”.
I called my Vet, and put her on an Immodium cure. And hiking in the afternoon was out of the question. I took that time to get a highly needed nap instead.
But on Friday, things were looking up. Karma seemed stable and I had a good night’s sleep. After work, I decided to drive to Voldnes and hike Laupsnipa.
On my way to Voldnes, the windshield wipers suggested triple-speed to maintain visibility and I thought to myself – this is a really bad idea.
But on the other hand – maybe this is the last rain shower for a while? Let the glass be half-full…
And lo and behold – it turned out to be the last rain shower. For a while. And we had a nice hike up the mountain. The path was a disaster of course…
If it could just NOT rain until we reached the top, I would be happy. And it didn’t.
We spent a few minutes on top. I was taking pictures and trying to figure out if we should move on or return the way we came.
As it didn’t seem to be raining anytime soon, I chose to keep walking along the ridge.
The ridge from Laupsnipa is hugely “undersold”. It’s a really nice walk, and I’ve never seen people up here!
We could not pass Keipen without paying a visit. But I have to be really careful with Karma up there as there is an abyss below the top.
From Keipen, we followed the ridge towards the Laupsnipa – Vasshornet pass.
My goal was now to some new tracks on my GPS map, as we hiked off-trail back to lake Voldnesvatnet, from where we would be following a path down to Voldnes.
We made it back to Voldnes without rain showers, but as I soon as I got back to Myrvåg, it was pouring down. I felt lucky!
Trip statistics: 7,7km, 690 vertical meters, 2h:04m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Kvamfjellet (774m), Sep 24 2020
Saturday: I needed to get off the island (Gurskøya) and was torn between going to the coastline or to the higher Vanylven mountains. The problem was the fog, which seemed to be clinging to every mountain top I could see. At least the tops exceeding 500m above sea level.
I took the ferry to Koparneset and didn’t make my final decision until I reached the Syvden junction. The coastline it is…
Now what? Maybe Kvamfjellet in Selje? I hadn’t been there since I visited this top with Anne 12 years ago, and I had no recollection of the hike. Yes, it had to be Kvamfjellet.
I remembered the trailhead, though. At Berstad by Moldefjorden. But that was it. From the minute we headed out, everything was new to me.
We followed the path up the northeast ridge – which was the same route as we took back in 2010. But no, nothing was familiar.
The path was kind of bad. Wet, muddy and with high grass. I could see signs of some maintenance here and there, but it was overall disappointing. I would think that the highest top in the former Selje municipality offered a better trail standard. This is no lack of respect to those who have put in the effort, though. It’s a tough route to maintain.
No worries though. At least, the path was visible, and we didn’t have any problems following it – into the fog. I didn’t even have a faint hope that a) the fog would lift or b) we would rise above it.
But it was OK. I don’t really mind doing a hike in the fog every now and then. It actually has its upsides.
Eventually, we reached the top and now I had to decide what to do next. It was raining light and part of me just wanted to get off the mountain. But the better part of me wanted to do a round-trip hike, and that’s how it went.
We headed towards the south ridge and followed signposts pointing to “Løypinga” – which I had no idea what was. And I could not find it on the map. But as I also saw the “Berstad” signpost, I assumed the path would eventually take us back to the trailhead.
My tip to those developing trails – don’t put up names on signposts that are not found on the map. Or – make sure the names get on the map.
It was nice to get below the fog and descend into the Venedalen valley – where I had never been before. I was confident that we did a round-trip hike back in 2010 also, but it couldn’t have been here? I’m sure I would have remembered something? It turns out that we descended the north ridge back then. I really don’t think I’m going senile. I think it’s more that I’ve done so many hikes that I can’t remember them all. As this was shortly after hooking up with Anne, I’m sure she would say I was so in love that it wasn’t strange that I didn’t remember the hike.
“Løypinga” turned out to be trail fork down in Venedalen, from where one can hike to Rimstad. But we followed the path in the direction of lake Berdalsvatnet and after a short while, the lake came into view.
It looked as it would be a long hike along the lake, and the challenge was the slippery rock – everywhere. Slippery as soap. I said to myself that if I make it back to the car without taking a fall, that would be a huge accomplishment!
After a lot of focus, we reached the trailhead – safe and sound. And of course – the fog was gone. If we had started 2 hours later, it would have been a different kind of hike. Still, no regrets…
On my way to the ferry, I had time to stop and take some (more) pictures of the rugged Syvden peaks.
Trip statistics: 9,2km, 830 vertical meters, 2h:45m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Måsegga (991m), Sep 25 2022
Sunday: I didn’t even bother checking the forecast. I knew this would be a rainy day. Still, I decided to hike Måsegga on the Eidskyrkja massif. This top is part of a ridge that’s called “Austefjordegga” where you will also find Vasshornet (812m) and Vikehornet (502m). None of these tops are pf100 tops, but at least Måsegga has a primary factor of 51m.
It hadn’t begun raining when we got into the car, but it started raining the very second we parked at Skinnviksætra (toll road – NOK 50, -) – 385m elevation.
Then came a flock of sheep running towards me. “Humans! Humans! Humans!”
I had to chase them (the sheep) off as I didn’t want to take out Karma in the middle of the flock. She would normally not care about sheep, but I could her on her voice that she thought we were being attacked. This has happened before and her instinct is to protect her family.
So, I chased them off again. They returned. I chased them off one more time. They returned. The third time, they got the message.
We followed the tractor road up to the fence. I lifted Karma across the fence (seriously – drop the barbed wire shit. That’s so medieval!) and then went off-trail with a direct course for the Litle Eidskyrkja – Måsegga pass.
Soon, we got on a different path that I didn’t know about. We followed it a little bit before going off-trail again.
The clue (for me) to enjoy a rainy hike is to seek terrain I haven’t been to before. That is, I’ve been to Eidskyrkja 14 times – and even Litle Eidskyrkja and Tårnet. So, it wasn’t as if the area was new to me. But I’ve never been north of Litle Eidskyrkja.
Approaching the pass, I could see red paint on rocks. I don’t know where this marked route begins, but at least it helped me make a couple of decisions going upwards. Not that the terrain was complicated, but the rocks were slippery as hell and the less contact we had with the rock, the better…
On the Måsegga ridge, it was a bit unpleasant. In addition to the rain, there was also snow in the air, plus wind.
Any idea I might have had about exploring the ridge further north was immediately cancelled. I just wanted the high point and then get off the mountain.
Karma didn’t seem to have any problems with turning around, either.
We took the same route down from the pass, but once past the rocky section we stayed further north of our ascent route. Two tracks on the GPS are always better than just one. Double value for the money, so to speak.
It was very nice to get back to the car and get dry clothes on, and I felt really good having pulled this hike off in the rain.
But, before driving back home, I had to pay my respects to the “Austefjord Toad“
With 4440 vertical meters (5 afternoon hikes and 2 weekend hikes), the hiking week was a bit above the average. With the upcoming autumn weather, I have a feeling I won’t be seeing such an intense hiking week again this year. But on the other hand, who knows? If there is one predictable thing about the weather, it’s that it’s totally unpredictable…
Trip statistics: 5,2km, 665 vertical meters, 1h:45m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
