Not prepared enough…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 10.03.24 | Munkeggi (attempt) | 1353m | 357m | Høyanger, Norway | – | MAP |
Sunday: Inspired by the nice ski-trip on Sognefjellet the day before, Anne proposed that we should give Munkeggi a try. Munkeggi is the highest peak on the long mountain ridge stretching from Høyanger to Esebotn near Balestrand.
We had decided to ski from Dalheim – the same trailhead that we used when we skied Hest back in 2016.
On the ferry to Balestrand, we met Vegard, Alf Tore and Torbjørn – heading for the top east of Keipen (1413m). This is a top very few people visit.
The weather was glorious, but the snow was rock hard. If this mountain involved some steep pitches (which I suspected it did), we might not get up. But we would for sure give it a try.
I didn’t remember anything from the 2016 ski-trip, but as we progressed up towards Breidstølen, some memories came back.
At least, I looked forward to coming skiing down this forest, despite the hard/icy snow.
Eventually, we reached Breidstølen.
We knew that our ascent route would be via Grønebotnen, so it was just a matter of heading northbound.
While not steep, skiing on the hard surface was beautiful. Not so beautiful was the wind, which increased in strength, the higher we got.
The forecast of 10-12 m/s seemed to be accurate. Anne is not a huge fan of constant wind and I could see her motivation deteriorating…
I was already almost confident that we wouldn’t get up, but I didn’t want to turn around before we had a good reason to do so.
When we got to 950m elevation, it got steeper. I was able to ski up while Anne decided to take the skis off.
When we passed 1000m elevation, the ridge was only 300 meters away, and we would have made it if we had decided to. But that didn’t mean we would be on easy street to the top. Far from it.
My decision to turn around was that we were not leaving any prints in the snow, neither from skis nor boots. And Karma was sliding in her socks. From experience, I knew that it would not feel good to come down this way. A fall would probably not injure us, but it would be a long and unpleasant slide.
In addition to this, the wind was unpleasant and only getting stronger the higher we came.
We had given it a try. No shame in turning around. The mountain will be still there, and hopefully we too, for some time to come…
The ski-descent was not pleasant. The snow felt way icier coming down than going up.
But with no risk ahead, we could still enjoy it – to a certain degree.
Back at Breidstølen, we met some cabin owners. We tried to engage them in a conversation, but they were not interested. Maybe it had something to do with their snowmobile. I don’t know…
We sat course back to the car and afterwards, I counted teeth. All there.
On the ferry, we met Vegard, Alf Tore and Torbjørn again. They had a successful ascent to their destination, using ski crampons. They said the snow was gorgeous on the upper mountain. They also told us that if we had reached the ridge, we still had to negotiate a descent from Nip (1330m). They had done this route on Friday (which was the main reason Anne wanted to go here today) and they told us about hard snow on the descent from Nip.
I cursed myself for not suggesting bringing crampons (we don’t have ski crampons), but we’ll be more prepared the next time around…
We’ll be back, and let the view from Hest in 2016 serve as inspiration…
Trip statistics: 10,3km, 700 vertical meters, 3h:05m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the trip:
