A good week on the trails…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 10.10.22 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 11.10.22 | Kiberget | 438m | 65m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 12.10.22 | Meraftafjellet | 578m | 578m | Skodje, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 13.10.22 | Garnestua | 653m | 415m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 14.10.22 | Skafjellet | 573m | 82m | Hareid, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 15.10.22 | Høgåsen | 182m | 99m | Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 15.10.22 | Sandhornet | 660m | 17m | Ørsta/Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 15.10.22 | Grøthornet | 745m | 57m | Ørsta/Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 15.10.22 | Melshornet | 807m | 564m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 15.10.22 | Vardehornet | 600m | 60m | Ørsta/Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 16.10.22 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 16.10.22 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Rambjøra (132m), Oct 10 2022
Monday: Holy moly, what a miserable and rainy day. Every fiber in my body wanted to stay indoors, but the need to walk the dog overruled everything I otherwise might feel.
As so many times before, the best way to endure rain is to go on a trail maintenance mission.
The main work started after we had passed the top.
It gets a little bit better every time, but I’ll die of age before I’m through with this trail…
Trip statistics: 3,6km, 135 vertical meters, 1h:48m
Kiberget (438m), Oct 11 2022
Tuesday: The continuous rain had been replaced by rain showers, and in-between the showers, it can get quite pretty.
I took the opportunity to visit Kiberget outside Ulsteinvik and looked forward trying to catch some good weather pics.
As we headed up the ridge to Kiberget, I could see the next shower move in.
The showers are quite pretty to look at. I just don’t want them where I am…
I hiked with the camera in my hand. I didn’t want to miss a single thing.
When we arrived on Kiberget, the shower had passed, and I decided to extend the hike by hiking across Skeidshornet and take the “long way” back to the trailhead.
When we passed Vikeskardet, heading for Skeidshornet – the “color show” was about to end. There was only a red glow lingering in the horizon.
The hike got longer than planned, but altogether a very nice hike!
Trip statistics: 9,5km, 450 vertical meters, 2h:08m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Meraftafjellet (578m), Oct 12 2022
Wednesday: Ålesund day. Karma got her 3rd Librela injection and knock on wood – this seemed to be magic stuff. Alas, it didn’t last, but I don’t blame Librela. But more about that later…
I decided to visit Meraftafjellet after work and we headed out along the forest road from Gudmundset. It’s a route we’ve taken many times before.
It was nice to reach the forest ridge, although I had to cross some really wet parts.
The interesting question was if we would get rain. I could see rain showers around me, but they didn’t seem to be an immediate “threat”.
The snowline seemed to have lowered itself to ~900m.
Up on the mountain, it was quite windy. Not terribly windy, but enough to warrant taking MANY pictures, hoping one would be okay.
Looking towards Hareidlandet, I could see rain showers all over the place. I was happy about taking my afternoon hike *here*.
Upon descent, I chose to hike off-trail down the forest facing southeast. I’ve done numerous off-trail descents here and I enjoy it. The only downside is that this is deer territory and where there are deer, there are also ticks.
I picked at least 10 ticks off my pants, while driving home…
Trip statistics: 6,2km, 550 vertical meters, 1h:48m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Garnestua (654m), Oct 13 2022
Thursday: A sunny day! I decided to hike Garnestua from Haddal – a route Karma just *loves*.
Normally, I would probably have gone off the islands, but Anne was on her way from Sogndal and so I decided to keep it short and local.
It was a wonderful hike up the ridge…
The camera was in my hand all the time. You never know what you could be missing out of…
I enjoyed ever single minute of this ascent…
After reaching the top, I decided to do an off-trail route on the upper mountain, parallel to the ascent route – one that I hadn’t done before (amazingly enough)
And then there were “fireworks” above my island Gurskøy. Spectacular!
My camera was running HOT!
The light kept changing all the time, and it was a wonderful sight!
But eventually, there was just a glow left in the horizon. This hike gave me a lot of energy!
Trip statistics: 5,7km, 600 vertical meters, 1h:57m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Skafjellet (573m), Oct 14 2022
Friday: The weather seemed to be holding up, and I proposed to Anne that we should drive to Hareiddalen and hike Skafjellet from Geilane.
The hike begun just fine. We kept a good and steady pace up the forest.
Then Anne got a sudden “flat battery”. To stay with the analogy, there was not even a light on the dashboard.
After giving it all she got, we agreed that it would be better if she turned around.
Meanwhile, Karma and I continued upwards, and I hoped to catch some more nice weather pics. It seemed that something was in the making…
On top, it was windy. Quite windy! Karma’s ears were flat out.
The plan was still to return via the Bigset route. All the more easier, as Anne would pick us up.
And THEN I got what I came here for…
But then – disaster. I didn’t have the patience to follow the normal path and took an off-trail short-cut (top picture) towards the Bigset route. The terrain was bad. Holes everywhere, and suddenly, Karma was standing on 3 legs.
I immediately considered taking her on my shoulders, but she seemed to be doing OK and I let her find her own rhythm. And then she was barely limping. I hoped that this would just be history the next day. Sadly, it wasn’t.
Trip statistics: 6km, 530 vertical meters, 1h:35m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Høgåsen (182m), Oct 15 2022
Saturday: When I woke up this morning, I had a plan A and a plan B, all depending on whether Karma was limping or not. As I had feared, she was limping and so plan A it was…
Plan A was an easy walk across Høgåsen in Hjartåbygda (Volda) – a top that neither Anne nor Karma had been to before. I had been there once.
I didn’t remember anything from the hike and as such I didn’t assume it would be memorable. But there was a “technical” side to it. Høgåsen has a primary factor of 99m, 1m short of making it to the list of Norwegian mountain tops. Would there be any reasons to report back to the map authorities that they should look at this top one more time?
Like with Olahansfjellet in Jølster. This top also had 99m when I visited it and found a rock – more than 1m high – on top. I sent an email to the municipality, got a feedback and it didn’t take too long before the primary factor was 101m.
There’s only two things that can affect the primary factor – the saddle height and the mountain height. There didn’t seem to be anything to do in terms of the saddle. We had GPS for good measure, but we didn’t trust anything it read. The saddle (map: between 82 and 83m) was measured to be 84m. It had to read less than 82m to make this interesting, given the 182m height of the top.
Our focus quickly turned towards the nice forest. It had that “wonderful green”
The forest also offered – I nearly said “toys for boys”, but in this case that would be wrong…
Then we reached the top. There wasn’t any “secret rock” that could “make our day”. On the map, this top is 181,9m and there was no “physical evidence” to suggest that it wasn’t so. Other than our GPS reading – which went all the way to 187m, something I don’t buy for a second…
“Of course” we found a “Gapahuk” on top. “Gapahuks in Norway” would be an interesting list for those who like to follow a list. There’s plenty enough of them to keep you busy for a while. And I do see the charm…
The map just before the top indicated that there was another route that would take us back to the trailhead – via Furnes.
At Furnes, it wasn’t evident where the route was, so we just kept walking past the house and found the red marker just before the forest.
It was indeed a nice path along the shore.
Back into the “green forest”, Anne went nuts with the funnel chanterelle and announced that – given enough of this, there would be risotto with mushroom for dinner. That sounded delicious and I joined in on the hunt…
And so, this became the longest trip report for the shortest hike of the week…
Trip statistics: 2,8km, 175 vertical meters, 1h:10m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Sandhornet (660m), Grøthornet (745m), Melshornet (807m), Vardehornet (600m), Oct 15 2022
Still Saturday: The second part of “plan A” was to get Anne motivated for shopping in Volda while I did a quick hike across Melshornet. She was indeed interested in shopping (but only in the bookstore) but more interesting was to continue the search for mushrooms.
We drove up to Volda Skisenter where I began my hike across Melshornet while Anne took the car and would do as she pleased. Karma survived the hiked across Høgåsen but the limping was now quite visible and she could only go on a very short walk with Anne.
I decided to hike up below the ski-lift. Easy at first, then a bit cumbersome.
Meanwhile, Anne went to lake Rotevatnet and visited the forest I came down 6 days earlier.
Unfortunately, this was not mushroom terrain and after a while she headed for Volda and the bookstore. Which – is said to be good. Haven’t been there myself.
Back to myself, I had topped out on Sandhornet and enjoyed a mighty fine panorama.
I could now start jogging and it didn’t take me long to reach Grøthornet.
The final hill to Melshornet was a mix of walking and jogging, but eventually I was at the cairn and could enjoy the classic Ørsta view.
The snowline had shrunk to 800m and there was fresh snow on Melshornet. The signs of winter weren’t too far away…
From Melshornet, it was jogging. 6km+ back to Volda. First, down to lake Dinglavatnet – where I decided to jog across Vardehornet. I assumed Anne wouldn’t notice…
From Vardehornet, I kept a good pace down the mountain and didn’t stop until I reached the CircleK gas station where I treated myself with a Coke and a hot-dog. That’s when I noticed that there was something odd with my phone and I had to reboot it to get network. I had missed several calls from Anne.
But she was in the neighborhood and I hooked up with her a few minutes later. A good day in Volda!
And Anne delivered risotto with mushrooms as promised!
Trip statistics: 9km, 670 vertical meters, 2 hours
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Rjåhornet (600m), Huldrehornet (271m), Oct 16 2022
Sunday: Karma was still limping, and Anne was soon to return to Sogndal. I asked her to drive me up to Leikongeidet, from where I could jog home – via Rjåhornet and Huldrehornet. She would not be leaving before I came back, and Karma would have company.
The trail from Leikongeidet was not easy to jog. It was wet and muddy and I was quite tired when I reached the pass.
It got a bit easier from the pass and onwards, except for losing the path near Sletteheidane and whatever “mojo” was left, drained into the ground.
But eventually, I reached Rjåhornet and the worst part was over.
I took the time to take a couple of pictures before running – fast – down the Djupvika route. I met a family on their way upwards and they made a remark about my “hurry”.
At the foot of Huldrehornet, I decided to scramble a steep route that I hadn’t done in *years*. I learned that I was still as nervous now as I was back then.
From Huldrehornet, I ran *fast* down the forest path, scaring another family on their way down the forest. Sorry about that…
When I returned to the house, Anne was surprised – having the feeling that I had just left…
And that concluded a mighty fine hiking week!
Trip statistics: 9km, 630 vertical meters, 1h:38m
Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
