Another skiing week…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 20.03.23 | Røddalshorn | 563m | 100m | Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 21.03.23 | Storetua | 592m | 249m | Sande, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 22.03.23 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 23.03.23 | Sollia | 661m | 661m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 25.03.23 | Tylderingen | 1104m | 241m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 25.03.23 | Flotshaugen | 229m | 9m | Sogndal, Norway | MAP | |
| 26.03.23 | Suletinden | 1780m | 285m | Lærdal/Vang, Norway | MAP |
Røddalshorn (563m), Mar 20 2023
Monday: After walking Karma on the Osnessanden beach during my lunchbreak, I started looking forward to a ski-trip after work. The weather was quite OK.
The choice fell on Røddalshorn – one last time before heading for Sogn and later, eastern Norway for Easter vacation.
The snow base should be solid enough for Karma to come along.
At the trailhead, I recognized my buddy Terje’s car and figured it was a good chance that we would run into him at some point.
Already in the pass, I could see him in front of us.
I guess he had spotted us, because we caught up with him in not too long. Normally, Karma goes bonkers when she meets Terje, but there wasn’t any particular reaction. As if she didn’t recognize him. Very strange!
I would be descending our ascent route, so Karma could follow the track. I had assumed Terje would descend a different route, but he decided to join us.
The snow conditions weren’t the best, but we made it down – safe and sound. All in all, good fun!
Trip statistics: 3,5km, 415 vertical meters, 0h:56m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the trip:
Storetua (592m), Mar 21 2023
Tuesday: The weather wasn’t particularly good, but I wanted to go on another ski-trip. And like always, when Røddalshorn has been “exhausted”, I move onto the neighbor top – Storetua.
I drove to Holtane and then we got on the normal route to Storetua. Old tracks made life a little easier for Karma.
I didn’t have high expectations for the downhill skiing, as the snow quality varied a lot. Still, the important thing was just to be out skiing.
Karma was happy just to be out…
On top, it was snowing lightly, and it felt like bad weather was moving in rather quickly. I decided to get off the mountain while we still “were ahead” …
Skiing down the upper mountain was not fun, as my vision is simply not good enough for flat light like this, and I haven’t found glasses that could turn water into wine…
It got more enjoyable a bit further down and in sum, it was all worth it…
Trip statistics: 6,6km, 460 vertical meters, 1h:36m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the trip:
Rambjøra (132m), Mar 22 2023
Wednesday: The weather did not inspire me to go out at all, but I found inspiration of repeating a route down from my local top Rambjøra, that I had thought about for a while.
We followed the normal route to the top. This route basically begins next to my house. Very practical and Karma LOVES this route. For reasons I don’t know. It’s not a very exciting route…
From the top, we headed west (off-trail) until it got steep, and we were looking down on Tovågane. Going down here in summer is a nightmare, but with snow covering the evil bush, it was more tolerable.
Once down by the sea, we followed the shore back to my neighborhood. But just before reaching the house, we went off-trail again. This time towards Skyttenesvågen.
All in all, a very cumbersome route but I got to cover some new ground – which I always enjoy.
Trip statistics: 4,3km, 140 vertical meters, 1h:12m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Sollia (661m), Mar 23 2023
Thursday: Our last day on Sunnmøre for a while. I wanted to ski Sollia before going on Easter vacation. I still hadn’t forgotten about my failed attempt (bad weather) earlier in the month.
The question was – how would the weather be today? At least, it started out OK…
Reaching the pass between Sollia and Røddalshorn, it was clear that I could forget about sunshine on this trip. The question was more – would we have visibility at all?
Nope – absolutely no visibility. If I hadn’t brought the dog, I would probably have been dizzy from disorientation.
There would be no turning around today, and even without visibility, I had no problems following the normal route to the top. Odd tracks here and there helped.
Once back at the pass, we got below the fog and could see the terrain again.
This felt very good. Sollia – the high point on Gurskøy island – was in the bag for the first time this year. And now I was ready for skiing in Sogn!
Trip statistics: 9,3km, 565 vertical meters, 2h:02m
Tylderingen (1104m), Mar 25 2023
Saturday: Back in Sogndal! Friday was transport day but this morning, Karma and I were on our way to Fretland to ski Tylderingen.
The weather was still not great, but I had some useful training in skiing in flat light this week, so this was more or less the “normal” now.
The snow in Sogndal is way different from the snow back home, so even if we found tracks this didn’t mean that they would carry Karma’s weight. Not that she seemed to mind…
Once “spent” after off-trail escapades, she fell in line behind me.
It was a bit windy up here and I wondered how it would be on top. Karma already looked “plastered”
The snow on the upper mountain definitely didn’t carry her weight and she had a bit of a struggle. She could always just sit down and give me the “let’s turn around” look. But I’ve never seen that once we’re on our way somewhere. She always gives me that look when she understands that we’re going to hike Saudehornet (1303m, Ørsta). For some reason, she doesn’t like that route. I can sort of sympathize. It’s 1300m straight up! But when I explain that we can’t turn around when we haven’t even begun, she accepts my logic and tags along…
Quite frankly – it was really unpleasant on top.
3 other skiers had found shelter on the lee side. The only problem is that this lee side offers so much turbulence that one’s clothes and backpack get filled with snow in seconds. Better to just deal with the wind…
Descending the upper mountain was not fun. I got a bit disoriented and went the wrong way until I realized that something was “off”.
The flat light made it difficult to see and ski.
A bit further down, it was all OK. Visibility was OK and skiing was fun. When we returned to Fretland, the parking was full and lots of skiers were preparing to go up. I wondered how many would actually reach the top today…
Trip statistics: 7,1km, 600 vertical meters, 1h:57m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the trip:
Flotshaugen (229m), Mar 25 2023
Saturday: In the afternoon, I wanted to walk the dog across Flotshaugen – a forest hump above Barsnesfjorden. Anne decided to come along, which was nice!
There was still some snow in this forest, but not a whole lot. The ascent was fairly easy on foot.
Flotshaugen is in the “low key” category. As far as I could understand, the hike should be popular, yet I’ve never seen hikers up here.
Like always, we descended on the other side. It was much more snow on this side, but as long as it’s downhill, it was OK.
At Barsnes, we followed the ice little while. Made me want to go skating.
Trip statistics: 4,3km, 265 vertical meters, 1h:15m
Suletinden (1780m), Mar 26 2023
This trip is featured on a separate post...
