Sogndal saved the week, again…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 21.10.24 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 22.10.24 | Djupvikhaugen | 98m | 29m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | – | MAP |
| 24.10.24 | Fjordstien | – | – | Sogndal, Norway | – | MAP |
| 25.10.24 | Hesteggi | 907m | 149m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 26.10.24 | Skriki | 1232m | 514m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 27.10.24 | Amlaholten | 508m | 265m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 27.10.24 | Skardsbøfjellet | 705m~ | 0m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Rambjøra (132m), Oct 21 2024
Monday: The week started with a storm. That kind of sets the tone…
During my working day (from home) I made a solid promise not to go hiking this afternoon. “Pouring down” was not even close to describe the weather. It was more like someone was going crazy with a giant hose. When I tried to take Karma out onto the street in my lunch break, she just gave me the “I’m good” look.
But after work, I got restless. Letting the weather win isn’t something I typically do. So, I put the rain gear on and was able to get the dog along. I don’t know how she does it, or what gives it away, but she always knows when I’ve decided to hike Rambjøra. That’s before she knows if I plan to drive somewhere or walk from the house. It’s quite puzzling.
And then we went for Rambjøra, with gusts above 20 m/s.
The weather is of course not that severe in the forest…
When we got up, we were so wet that we might as well do the usual roundtrip hike.
It was not fun, but at least we did it!
Trip statistics: 3,7km, 140 vertical meters, 0h:48m
Djupvikhaugen (98m), Oct 22 2024
Tuesday: The bad weather continued, but the difference was that it wasn’t raining constantly. It was more like a frequent rain shower day. But each shower meant business.
When I finished my working day, we were between showers, and I decided to drive to Djupvika to start marking the new route we’ve cleared.
The first thing that happened when we got out of the car, was a “wall” of hail. Karma ran back to the car and hid behind it. I don’t blame her.
The rain replaced the hail, and she came along. I figured we should hike to Djupvikhaugen first, so that she could do some walking before I started working.
A bit later, the first stick was in the ground.
2/3 of this route is a deer track and these sections were easy to clear with the brush cutter.
The remaining 1/3 runs through the forest and there were no tracks from before. I’ll probably be spending some afternoons here, making the route a bit more obvious, even thought it’s well marked now.
In the end, I ran out of sticks. There were originally 13 sticks in my backpack, and it was heavy. It was probably not a good idea to do this already now, given my struggle with tension headache for the past months. I hoped I would “get away with it” though…
Trip statistics: 2,3km, 180 vertical meters, 0h:59m
Fjordstien, Sogndal, Oct 24 2024
Thursday: I skipped hiking the day before. The weather was just too bad. My neck was stiff after carrying a heavy backpack the day before and Karma had developed a new hot spot on her tail.
This morning, I woke up at 3am with the worst headache ever. If it hadn’t been for my “toolset” of self-massage and stretching, I would probably have panicked, thinking it would be cerebral haemorrhage or something.
This time, it took me 4 hours to shake it off. It’s not the optimal way to start the working day, which will be hectic like it always is.
After work, I packed the car and sat course for Sogndal. There wouldn’t be any hiking today either, but at least I would take the dog for a walk along the nice Fjordstien route in Sogndalsfjøra.
When I got out of the Fjærland tunnel, I had to stop to look at the beautiful sky.
Down by Fjærland, I had to stop the car for a second time.
When I got to Sogndal, Anne wanted to join in for a walk along Fjordstien.
I really, really, really like this route. And especially if there are good conditions for photography.
I didn’t bring my camera today, so the Iphone would have to do.
I think the Nye Loftesnes bru bridge is awesome. I’m always attracted to it.
I really regretted not bringing the camera. But there will be more opportunities for sure…
The latest bridge – Osenbrui – is also quite a sight. The lighting work is so cool.
Earlier in the day, a mural by Giuseppe Miconi was unveiled. The “theme” is anti-racism.
Trip statistics: 3,1km, 20 vertical meters, 0h:53m
Hesteggi (907m), Oct 25 2024
Friday: Anne was going on a work-trip to the Nigardsbreen glacier and took Karma with her.
She (Karma) likes that. New places, new people and perhaps – other dogs.
So much to see, so much to check out!
Close to the glacier, she found her “base” while the humans were working.
Maybe she was a little confused, as they weren’t going to a mountain top, but mommy had brought treats, nevertheless.
Once the season closing activities (she is a Field Inspector for the Norwegian Nature Surveillance) were done, it was time to head back down.
I went for a hike all by myself before they returned, and my hike went up Hesteggi. This would be a repetition of the route I did in August.
The goal was still to reach the top within the hour and today I didn’t have poles to help me up the long mountainside.
I looked forward to reach Loftesnesfjellet and enjoy the nice Sogndal view from up there.
In August, I only stopped pictures once, and I was up in 58 minutes. Today, I had two stops for pictures and wondered if that would tip me over one wrong side of the hour.
But it didn’t. I reached the cairn 59 minutes and 59 seconds after leaving the car.
I enjoy this “test of fitness”. It’s not a matter of getting to the top in record time. I can’t beat my half-decent times from 2015-2018 anyway (my personal record is 44 minutes) but if I just walk fast, one hour is well within limits.
I know for sure it’s going to be a bad day when I’m no longer able to meet this benchmark…
Hesteggi is a good workout. It’s almost 800 meters straight up and a very good fitness test. Now that I’m into my 60’s, I could not even phantom how to get back to the “golden days” of 44 minutes.
It would for sure be tempting to give it a try, but the idea is in vain. One thing is the bad knee, which probably doesn’t need any more running, but I could never combine running up mountains with hiking every day. I would need to rest, and I don’t want to rest. So, I’m happy with setting new benchmarks from just walking as fast as possible…
Trip statistics: 9km, 780 vertical meters, 1h:52m
Skriki (1232m), Oct 26 2024
Saturday: This hike is featured on a separate post…
Amlaholten (508m), Oct 27 2024
Sunday: The weather forecast for this Sunday was not good. The only 1-hour window without rain was between 9 and 10am. So, I decided to take Karma on a hike across Amlaholten before breakfast. Anne would go to Sogndalsfjøra and do the regular Sunday-swim with the regular bunch, in Sogndalsfjorden.
It was raining when I left Sogndal, and I wasn’t too happy about that. But when I got to Kaupanger, the weather was just great!
The light in the forest was all I needed to tick off this Sunday as “great”.
Karma didn’t seem to share my enthusiasm, but she’s no big fan of tractor roads.
Her enthusiasm became more visible when we went into the forest and got fjord views.
I enjoy exploring this forest very much, and that’s reflected on my “all-my-hikes GPS track map” …
I’d love to try to get into the couloirs…
There is a neat path that runs above the steep cliffs above the Sognefjord.
There are also a couple of decent viewpoints, although it’s impossible to take any kind of panorama without also including trees.
Our 1-hour window had already come to an end, and we were on “borrowed time”. It was time to get to the top and start heading back down before the rain.
Amlaholten is a popular top and I had kind of expected to find others up here. But maybe we were early.
We had a nice off-trail descent down the forest.
I drove down to Kaupanger and then it started to rain.
This was just a fantastic start to the day! Now, back home for a late breakfast!
I also observed that Skriki – which we hiked across the day before – had gotten a fresh dump of snow during the night.
Trip statistics: 4,7km, 360 vertical meters, 1h:08m
Across Skardsbøfjellet (~705m), Oct 27 2024
Sunday: After the wonderful hike across Amlaholten, the plan – given the forecast – was to spend the rest of the day inside.
But after a little while I got restless. The weather wasn’t THAT bad. The rain showers didn’t seem so … brutal. I asked Anne if I could borrow her e-bike for a quick trip across Skardsbøfjellet.
She checked the current weather on Skardsbøfjellet and told me it was 1 deg. C. up there. And mixed snow/rain. “Sludd” in Norwegian. Optimistic as I was, I didn’t think it could be that bad. There was blue sky beyond Solvornnipa, so perhaps I could get some nice weather along the way?
The e-bike battery was only 50%, which was a concern. I didn’t bother waiting for it to reload and so I would just have to save some battery where I could.
When I left Anne’s house, there was no longer a blue sky beyond Solvornnipa, but it wasn’t raining a lot. I was still optimistic.
And wouldn’t you know – when I got down to Sogndalsfjøra 5 minutes later, everything was just honky dory fine!
The honky doryness only lasted until I had passed the Rubbeskallen tunnel, along the old road. I still hadn’t switched on the battery and the rain was pouring down. I felt water going into my underwear and couldn’t understand how that could even happen.
Riding an e-bike with the battery switched off is a) no fun and b) hard work. I was happy when I got to Fardal and could switch to “e-mode”. I was now doing 25km/h up the hill, and it had stopped raining. Things were looking up!
But things were not so great, halfway up the hill. The battery went to 0 in record time. Even if the meter showed flat battery, there was still some juice left in it.
While biking was much harder by now, it was clearly not dead. I was still able to do 10-12km/h until I reached the top of the hill. Then I switched it off, hoping there was 1% left for the climb back to Anne’s house.
It was raining and snowing on top, just like Anne said. And based on how cold I was, it was probably just 1 deg. C. too.
It was a bit awkward to have headphones outside the helmet, and then a hood to keep the headphones dry. But the headphones survived, and I was able to get through two whole ELO albums on this trip.
The ~650 vertical meters down from Skardsbøfjellet were cold! There was nothing much to do, other than steering and braking.
Finally, I got back to Sogndal and now I had 40 vertical meters up to Anne’s house. I switched on the E-mode and thankfully, there was still a little juice left in the battery.
Now, I would most definitely spend the rest of the day indoors…
Trip statistics: 25,6km on bike, 790 vertical meters, 1h:24m
