And then winter came…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 18.11.24 | Skjeggen | 738m | 25m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 19.11.24 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 20.11.24 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 21.11.24 | Aksla | 188m | 188m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 22.11.24 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 23.11.24 | Hornseten | 190m | 152m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 24.11.24 | Osberget | 134m | 36m | Ulstein, Norway | MAP |
Skjeggen (738m), Nov 18 2024
Monday: Still in Sogndal, and I drove Anne to the bus station, as she would be traveling to Oslo for a few days. I decided to stay in Sogndal for one more day and get a nice hike in the fine weather.
I sat my eyes on Skjeggen (literally – as it’s just across the valley from Anne’s place) and I hoped that the top has become popular enough and that we would find tracks. The snow > 500m would be fairly deep and a broken trail would have been just perfect.
We started down by the fjord – at Folkehøyskolen.
I could have driven all the way up to Åberge, but I don’t do that anymore. I don’t think they like hikers who park up there. Maybe because it’s no parking there and people still park.
But hiking across Røvhaugene is always nice, and that’s my main reason for hiking from sea level.
After a while, we had Skjeggen – and snow – ahead of us.
Daylight was fading fast. But I assumed we would reach the top before the headlamp had to come on.
We then passed Kjørrdalen – a place I dedicated some of my free time to – a year ago.
Plodding through the snow got a bit tedious and I was happy when the top came into view.
We had to break our own trail up to the high point.
Then we went to the – I believe increasingly popular – viewpoint.
Back in the forest, the headlamp had to come on, and it was quite dark when we returned to Åberge.
It was a nice hike. I enjoyed it a lot.
There was only one thing left to do – to take a picture of the bridge.
Trip statistics: 9,5km, 790 vertical meters, 2h:25m
Rambjøra (132m), Nov 19 2024
Tuesday: I finished work 2:30pm and started to drive back home (from Sogndal). The roads were for the most part free of snow, but it was icy across Utvikfjellet. I was glad to come down from the mountain pass.
At Olden, I stopped to take a picture of “Otto Sverdrup” – one of the ships in the Coastal Express fleet. This fleet has serviced the coastline for as long as I can remember.
When I got to Stryn, I realized that the skiing season had begun. Winter was here and I didn’t see it coming. It was snowing in Vestland county when I was back home, and when I got to Sogndal, it was snowing in my home county (Møre og Romsdal). I hardly saw a snowflake coming down.
Of course, I didn’t know about any snowfall back home, so when I got to Volda, I was curious how it would look like on the other side of the Eiksund tunnel.
OK, there was winter back home as well. Luckily, I was able to get the car up the small hill in front of my house. Then I unloaded the car and took Karma for a walk across Rambjøra. It was an easy hike in the very beginning.
Then the snow got deeper and deeper.
However, the snow was light and plodding through it was fairly easy.
Karma LOVED the hike, and it was a struggle to keep her on the trail.
The bench revealed the amount of snow that came down the day before.
We did the regular roundtrip today as well.
Back home, straight into the shower…
Trip statistics: 3,7km, 150 vertical meters, 1h:10m
Huldrehornet (271m), Nov 20 2024
Wednesday: During my workday at my home office, I looked forward to going hiking somewhere with a little daylight left and some blue sky.
It didn’t take long before I realized there would be no blue sky today.
As I had to work until 4:30pm, there wasn’t any daylight left either. So, I chose to go to the Huldrehornet forest with the lopper and cut overhanging branches.
The temperature was on the way up, but the snow was still deep. And, we had fog. Anne – on her way home (to Sogndal) from Oslo in a plane, texted me and said that the plane couldn’t land on all the places along the “milk route”. But luckily, the plane did land in Sogndal.
Karma was not enthusiastic about hiking today. Maybe it was the suit, I don’t know.
I decided to go for a roundtrip hike and when we descended the steep south side, she looked happier.
When we got onto the new path in Djupvika that I very recently “opened”, I discovered that a tree was now blocking the way. As my chainsaw is in Sogndal, the tree will just have to wait or maybe I can call someone in the local trail group. We’ll see…
Trip statistics: 4,6km, 350 vertical meters, 1h:51m
Aksla (188m), Nov 21 2024
Thursday: Ålesund day, and appointment at the Vet. Karma’s wound (hot spot) had been healing nicely, thanks to the antibiotics. We agreed that she would stay on that for one more week. We certainly didn’t want to risk that some bacteria could survive and cause the same problem later on.
I didn’t want to risk losing my place in the garage, so I walked to and from the clinic. A 3,1km (total) walk before lunch isn’t bad.
After work, I took the dog for a walk across Aksla.
The snowy paths were well worn, and we got up to Rundskue without any major effort.
The coastline view from the top is OK, but …
The view towards Sunnmørsalpene is bad. They should get rid of some trees!
Fortunately, there was a better viewpoint at Fjellstua.
The Ålesund view from Fjellstua didn’t let us down today, either. I love this view.
The view towards Sunnmørsalpene and Sula is good too, but to me – it doesn’t compare to the city view.
Then we took the 418 steps down to Byparken.
Then it got dark, but I didn’t have to switch the headlamp on. The snow helped on the visibility.
It was a really nice walk!
Trip statistics: 8,1km, 420 vertical meters, 1h:35m
Vet: 3,1km, 50 vertical meters, 0:33m
Rambjøra (132m), Nov 22 2024
Friday: Less headaches lately. I’ve found a new twist and bend method that seems to be a good thing. The headache this morning was very moderate, and I had a good working day, spending my lunch break shovelling snow.
I had to shovel one more time before Anne came in the afternoon. We then took a walk up the Rambjøra forest and I brought my lopper. There were plenty of overhanging branches to trim away.
We enjoyed ourselves from the very beginning.
We had a proper Christmas feeling on our way up the forest.
The branches got bigger and bigger …
… and we got wetter and wetter…
Eventually, we reached the top and the snow level was now ~27cm. Which is highly unordinary where I live. I was on Rambjøra on Nov 22 2023 and there wasn’t a snowflake in the forest.
On our way down, we took the route to Møre Skule. More branches had to be cut away there. It was nice to be out while it was snowing. I tried to forget that more snow meant more shovelling of snow outside my house.
One thing was clear. The dog would have to hit the shower, once back home.
Trip statistics: 3,1km, 150 vertical meters, 1h:25m
Hornseten (190m), Nov 23 2024
Saturday: What a day! I did some PC work before breakfast and when I got out of the chair, the back locked. It was really painful. The only tolerable position was bent over, forwards.
I was soon to drive Anne to Hovden airport. She would fly to Oslo, spend the night there and continue to Réunion island on Monday morning. But first, I had to shovel snow for an hour, digging the car out. That didn’t help my bad back at all.
Then I drove Anne to the airport and said goodbye. We had a good feeling about the plane being able to land, and subsequently take off. I drove home and followed the flight on Flightradar.
After a while, it was apparent that the plane was not able to land and that I would have to drive to Hovden airport one more time – this time to pick her up.
This was a bummer for her, having planned Saturday night and all Sunday with friends. Instead, she would have to take the bus to Otta, and the train to Oslo the next day. Hopefully, she would make it.
Once back home, I was determined to get “something good” out of the day and decided to drive to Bergsøya to hike across Heida and Hornseten.
I expected that the trail across Heida would be easy to hike (and it was) but I wasn’t so sure about the path to Hornseten.
I looked forward to taking a picture of Fosnavåg, from the “Gapahuk”. I just love my Octopus Tripod (for the cell phone). It’s just fantastic!
I enjoyed the hike across Heida. I didn’t expect meeting anyone – on this otherwise popular trail, and let Karma run free. But – she doesn’t do that. If it’s the training or the love for daddy, I don’t know. But she never runs off.
The path up Hornseten was well travelled and Karma didn’t have any problems. As I had hoped, and I didn’t even put suit or socks on her.
It was nice to reach the top. The back was aching like crazy, and I looked forward to the downhill. I don’t know why, because going down was worse.
But first, a round of pictures…
We got a nice roundtrip hike, before returning home where Anne had prepared Sushi…
Trip statistics: 4,7km, 220 vertical meters, 1h:07m
Osberget (134m), Nov 24 2024
Sunday: The day began early, by driving Anne to Garneskrysset, where she would get on a bus and make another attempt to get to eastern Norway. At least the bus came…
My back was just killing me. It was OK to lay down or sit still, but every move was painful. I also had some headache and decided that this would be a resting day.
But I got too restless in the afternoon, took the dog and drove to Ulsteinvik to hike across Osberget. It had started to rain now, but not a lot.
We followed the new path from Skeide, up the forest.
After a while, we ended up on paths where no one had gone since the snow came.
We stopped by a viewpoint, overlooking Skeide.
Then we sat course for Osberget.
It was difficult to take pictures, due to the strong wind.
The below picture got blurry, but it’s a nice viewpoint so I look forward to returning there in less wind.
Painful as the walk was, it felt good to have given the dog a walk. Peace of mind.
In the evening, I spoke to Anne. She was on her way to Gardermoen to meet the others she will be traveling to Réunion early tomorrow. Glad she made it!
Trip statistics: 4,1km, 250 vertical meters, 1h:15m
