Daylight is fading, with stunning colors…
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 31.10.22 | Stedjeåsen | 625m | 123m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 01.11.22 | Støyvafjellet | 875m | 42m | Gloppen, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 02.11.22 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 02.11.22 | Nakken | 180m | 22m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | – | MAP |
| 03.11.22 | Rotenakken | 278m | 18m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 03.11.22 | Høgekubben | 461m | 102m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 04.11.22 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 04.11.22 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 05.11.22 | Tuva | 643m | 59m | Vanylven, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 05.11.22 | Velsvikskåla | 1008m | 369m | Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 06.11.22 | Øyrahornet | 417m | 42m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 06.11.22 | Nonshornet | 485m | 7m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Stedjeåsen (625m), Oct 31 2022
Monday: During my lunch break, I took Karma to the other side of the Sogndal bridge – just for variation. That was a good call. I got some cool pics…
It was the first day since Thursday when I didn’t have a headache. I decided to just LOVE this Monday…
After work: With limited daylight left, I figured I would just have time to do a hike across Stedjeåsen (Sogndal) before it went total dark. It’s like this every year, after turning the clock back – I’m trying all I can do hikes with daylight. The headlamp will be found soon enough. It’s going to be a long winter…
We kept a good pace up the forest, as I wanted some time to revisit the new route we did two days ago, which I didn’t get recorded on the GPS, as the batteries died.
Passing the mailbox, I was in such a rush that I couldn’t keep the phone steady.
Eventually, we were on the path that I only discovered two days earlier, and this path – that I guess is a deer track – offered the best view I’ve seen from Stedjeåsen.
It was pretty dark when we returned to Anne’s house. Again, impeccable timing…
Trip statistics: 5,6km, 650 vertical meters, 1h:30m
Støyvafjellet (875m), Nov 1 2022
Tuesday: I left Sogndal 3pm, going home to Sunnmøre. I had an idea about hiking Orkja (948m) in Jølster on my way home. I always do the 500 vertical meters plus descent in less than one hour. As such, I would be able to do this in daylight.
But there were two showstoppers. The first was the convoy through the new tunnel by Kjøsnefjorden. That costed me 20-25 minutes. And then there was the rain. The pouring rain. Orkja was off the table now.
On our way up to Utvikfjellet, the rain was replaced by a stunning light that I’m not sure I’ve seen before. It was just gorgeous.
On top of Utvikfjellet, I figured I had less than one hour of daylight left. That SHOULD be enough to visit Støyvafjellet. It’s a fairly short hike – 4,6km in total. I decided to go for it.
And off we went.
I’m thankful for Utvikfjellet and the paths. They offer easy hikes from a high elevation (600m). So when I’m hiking a 875m top on my way home, it sounds bolder than it really is…
Karma was “all spent” with the color show above and focused on more earthly stuff.
And then the traditional picture with Karma on top of the summit rock.
In order to reach the car before total darkness, I had to jog. I say “I” rather than “we” as it doesn’t look like running when Karma is keeping up with my jog. A more rapid walk, perhaps. But that’s it. I’m envious…
Trip statistics: 4,6km, 360 vertical meters, 53 minutes
Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Rjåhornet (600m), Nov 2 2022
Wednesday: Back home on Sunnmøre, I had to resume visiting our local tops and photograph the last pages of the visitor registers. Sollia was “in the bag” last week. Now, the time had come for Rjåhornet. I chose the Djupvika route.
I didn’t have plenty of time for this hike either and so we kept a good pace up the mountain.
Of course, we had to stop for pictures. The light these afternoons has just been wonderful!
It was nice to reach the top. Now I had better control of the time.
We also had time for some more pictures. I regretted not bringing my Canon, but the Iphone isn’t totally useless – if you don’t need to dive into the pixels…
I make sure to enjoy every single second on afternoons like these. Winter is around the corner. It will be something else altogether.
I then decided to descend via the Leikong route and hike across Nakken. There is a visitor register there too.
For a change, I had some surplus time before darkness and didn’t have to hurry across Nakken.
The hike did remind me that I could spend endless time with my lopper up here, and still the hike will look overgrown.
But that’s a worry for later. Now, we’ll just enjoy hiking in nice weather…
Trip statistics: 7,8km, 660 vertical meters, 1h:56m
Rotenakken (278m), Høgekubben (461m), Oct 3 2012
Thursday: Ålesund day. It was a busy day and I felt washed out already at 2pm. That was 8 hours after heading to work. I decided to leave 2:30pm and get some daylight before returning home to Gurskøy.
I chose to go hiking from Østrem (near Magerholm) – as I hadn’t done many hikes from there in the past. I particularly wanted to hike Rotenakken – which I hadn’t been to before. The plan was then to hike across Høgekubben and return via the road from Østremsætra. I hoped there was enough daylight.
The path to Rotenakken is – by the looks of it – popular.
And the view from the top wasn’t half bad either.
We hurried onwards in the direction of Høgekubben. This path was wetter and boggier, but not too bad. I did feel that we ought to hurry, so I gradually switched to jogging.
Eventually, we were on the ridge path to Høgekubben and I had to stop numerous times to take pictures of the amazing sunset in progress.
And then we reached the top. 4:04pm. Which meant I had one hour of good daylight left. Would that be enough for the descent? I didn’t know that we had 6,5km back to the car, but I could “feel it”. So, it would be non-stop jog from here on.
But first, some pictures…
It was nice to jog across “Kubbane”. The path is good, and the terrain is nice. It would have been a more effective jog if I didn’t constantly had to stop for more pictures…
Still, it seemed that we were OK so far. When running, we were running fast and Østremsætra kept coming closer.
At Østremsætra, we had more than 4km back to the car. The time was 4:30pm, and we had approx. 40 minutes of daylight left. Should be enough.
We jogged all the way back to Østrem without “further ado” and was back at the car 5:03pm, minutes before “lights out”. Honestly, I was quite impressed with my timing on my recent hikes. No need to switch on the Iphone light. But this coming weekend, I *will* locate my headlamp…
Trip statistics: 10,7km, 515 vertical meters, 2h:05m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Huldrehornet (271m), Rambjøra (132m), Nov 4 2022
Friday: One of the most uneventful walks in a long time. The weather was miserable, and I was uninspired.
But I had a mission, which was to photograph the last pages of the visitor registers on these tops. I’m not even sure why. I was just asked by the local trail committee. I guess it’s about documenting that we should continue to get funding for our trail maintenance work.
Daylight after work is really fading fast now, so if I were to cover both Huldrehornet and Rambjøra, I’d better hurry up.
After visiting Huldrehornet, I jogged down the forest, and continued jogging all the way to the Rambjøra trailhead at Dragsundflata.
From here on, the path is in desperately bad condition. We need bridges all over the place. But good boots go a long way, and you sort of get used to it. I mean, it’s the coastline. It’s our destiny. We take the hit, the central mountain range tears the rain apart and they can enjoy nice days in eastern Norway.
It was nice to reach the top and begin the descent that would lead to my front door, a warm house and a warm shower. The things we take for granted. I try to make my best to cherish this privilege each and every day. Especially in times like these.
Trip statistics: 7,5km, 390 vertical meters, 1h:40m
Tuva (643m), Velsvikskåla (1008m), Nov 5 2022
This trip report is featured on a separate post…
Øyrahornet (417m), Nonshornet (485m), Nov 6 2022
Sunday: It rained this morning, and I didn’t feel like for going outside – other than walking the dog around the block.
I did some blogging, but afterwards I figured – hey! Why not try the normal life for a day?
I ended up in the sofa, watching 3 episodes of Masterchef Australia. I love that show! While eating potato chips and doing laundry. I truly felt like a completely normal person!
But I got bored and so I decided to go out and do some trail maintenance. Preferably on Øyrahornet – and maybe Nonshornet, as I still had to take pictures of the last page of the visitor registers.
I dressed up in rain gear, only to find that it had stopped raining by the time I got to the trailhead. So I left the rain gear in the car, brought the dog and my lopper and headed towards Øyrahornet.
A while was spent in the lower forest, as my focus today was juniper bush. When I could feel my back getting stiff from ripping roots, we continued up the mountain.
Passing the bench, we had to stop for the classic picture…
I checked the time and figured that there was enough daylight to get to Nonshornet and back down before it got dark.
Getting to Nonshornet meant 1,7km of not fun off-trail hiking across the meadow. The only fun thing was the semi-steep ascent up to Nonshornet. Fun – as in – I wasn’t 100% sure that we would get up, seen from a distance. But up close, there wasn’t any challenges left.
Now, the documenting the visitor registers task was complete, and I didn’t have to think of those books for another year.
We stopped down in the forest for more juniper bush work and I made a mental note about this trail is needing a whole lot more care and attention.
But that’s for another day. Now, I was just happy about happy pulled off a good hike and a lot of trail maintenance on a day that seemed to be grey and rainy.
Trip statistics: 8,4km, 640 vertical meters, 3h:34m
