Birthday, Sogndal, winter and the first ski-trips this season…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 16.12.24 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 17.12.24 | Amlaholten | 508m | 265m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 18.12.24 | Kvitebergholten | 503m | 0m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 18.12.24 | Fjordstien | – | – | Sogndal, Norway | – | MAP |
| 19.12.24 | Stedjeåsen | 625m | 123m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 19.12.24 | Fjordstien | – | – | Sogndal, Norway | – | MAP |
| 20.12.24 | Høgehaug | 980m | 10m | Sogndal | WCP | MAP |
| 20.12.24 | Solvorn | – | – | Luster, Norway | – | MAP |
| 21.12.24 | Stedjeåsen | 625m | 123m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 22.12.24 | Høgehaug | 980m | 10m | Sogndal | WCP | MAP |
Huldrehornet (271m), Dec 16 2024
Monday: This birthday was a nice one. I had signed up for vacation for the rest of the year, yet I had to work a couple of hours in the morning. But from 10:30, the day was all mine.
I spent most of the day getting ready for going to Sogndal the next day, and I would stay there for the rest of the year.
But there was also time for a walk. Because of the weather (mostly bad) and all the things I had to do, I settled for a hike across Huldrehornet.
We were lucky to get to the top without being in a middle of a rain or hail shower. The weather was of the “anything can happen” type…
I had mixed feelings about going to Sogndal. For the most part, I looked forward to spending the rest of the year with Anne, but I would also be going to winter. No more walks up to 600m. But hey, sooner or later, the switching-to-skis leap must be taken. It might as well be now…
We descended on the south side and followed the forest path to Djupvikhaugen.
There isn’t a Christmas star on every mountain top along the coastline, but there are many…
Returning to the car, I decided to take a route I don’t do very often, and we hiked along the side of Djupvikvatnet where there isn’t a path. My shoes were already wet, so…
The hike had given me time to think. I was fed up with the rain and the hail. As such, I now looked forward going to Sogndal. Period. Bring on winter!
The below picture says it all. This is hardly a drain under normal circumstances.
Trip statistics: 4,9km, 320 vertical meters, 1h:26m
Amlaholten (508m), Dec 17 2024
Tuesday: I left Sunnmøre 10am and planned to spend the rest of the year in Sogndal. I had carefully picked a window where the weather wasn’t too bad. I always drive across Utvikfjellet, but today I decided to take the Lote – Anda ferry and avoid the mountain pass.
3,5 hours later, I was in Sogndal. But as Anne was still at work, I continued to Kaupanger – to walk the dog across Amlaholten.
Today, we would follow the northernmost of the forest roads stretching from Festingdalen and to the northwest ridge.
I felt a little dizzy while walking. That’s typical when I go straight from a 3-hour+ drive and go hiking.
Karma was probably a little dizzy too, because she had to vomit. I suppose a 3-hour+ drive makes her a little bit carsick, although she’s used to this traveling.
It was strange; In Sogndalsdalen, people were coming down on skis at 500m elevation. Here, at the same elevation, there was hardly any snow at all.
We stopped by one of the viewpoints before heading up to the top.
I was happy that we were able to get a hike today, and I always enjoy hiking in the Amlaholten forest.
We followed the “panorama route” for a little while, before going off-trail.
A bit later, we followed a path for a little while, until the desire to continue off-trail got too strong.
It was nice to be back in Sogndal. As my car was fully packed, it took a little time to carry everything down to Anne’s house – including the Christmas tree I had on the roof. But I could also feel the muscles had begun to relax. I had signed out from work for the rest of the year, but that was only to burn some of my leftover vacation days. It surely would not mean that I wouldn’t have to log back on, every now and then…
Trip statistics: 5,5km, 360 vertical meters, 1h:16m
Kvitebergholten (503m), Dec 18 2024
Wednesday: I was enjoying my vacation in Sogndal, but perhaps not to the fullest. I still had to log on to work and make sure some critical data found its way to the right system.
But at noon, I was free, and it was time for a walk. Anne wanted to join in, and she hinted that it would be nice to go to the Kaupanger forest. We agreed to go to Kvitebergholten, and I looked forward to getting some new tracks on my track map.
We started near the Amla tunnel and after minutes, we came across a path that I didn’t know about.
But I wasn’t really here for the paths and so we went off-trail, starting by crossing Fosselvi river.
Once on the other side, we just continued upwards, with direction for Kvitebergholten.
Anne found a good tree for resting her back…
Finally, we arrived on a tractor road that we followed for a little while.
A little bit later, we reached our main goal for the day.
From Kvitebergholten, we followed another tractor road nearly until its end and then we followed paths I didn’t know about, back to our starting point.
Altogether, a very nice hike although the weather wasn’t the best.
Trip statistics: 7,5km, 450 vertical meters, 2h:12m
Fjordstien, Sogndal, Dec 18 2024
Wednesday: Late evening, I decided to take Karma for a walk in Sogndalsfjøra.
I don’t particularly like walking around in towns and villages, but I really enjoy this path by the fjord.
And I particularly like the new Loftesnes bridge…
Karma seemed surprised about this bonus walk, in the light rain.
Trip statistics: 3,9km, 30 vertical meters, 0h:56m
Pictures (Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the walk:
Stedjeåsen (624m), Dec 19 2024
Thursday: Officially, I was on holiday, but there were things that needed attention at work, so that’s how the morning started.
At noon, I took the dog for a walk up Stedjeåsen. It was raining. All paths where people had been walking were icy. But I had ice cleats on.
We followed the forest in the direction of Flatningane and stumbled onto a marked path that I didn’t know about. It turned out (after checking my GPS track map) that I hadn’t hiked this path before.
After a while, the rain converted to snow. “Sludd” in Norwegian.
A bit later, it was just snowing. Karma was super-happy!
There was quite a bit of snow on the Stedjeåsen meadow. I didn’t bother to cross the meadow for the high point. It would be a hard struggle for Karma. On our way to the meadow, we had crossed the 623,3m ridge, and as the high point is 624,6m. As such – close enough!
The descent was 50% less traveled paths (less icy) and 50% off-trail.
When we got to “Dagsturhytta”, I could see that the regular path was super-icy and so we took a different route down.
Soon, we entered the mix of snow and rain again.
When we joined the regular path again, I was so happy that we had chosen a different route!
Trip statistics: 6,7km, 610 vertical meters, 1h:52m
Fjordstien, Sogndal, Dec 19 2024
Thursday: Another walk with Karma along Fjordstien, but this time Anne joined in. We followed the same route as Karma and I did last night, to the Loftesnes bridge.
We took the same route back.
As I was taking pictures, Anne decided to become a “photo bomber” …
It wasn’t just the forest paths that were icy. At this hour, the rain had started to freeze on the ground.
Yet another fine walk in Sogndalsfjøra.
Trip statistics: 3,2km, 30 vertical meters, 0h:51m
Høgehaug (980m), Dec 20 2024
Friday: This was a long and busy day. Anne got up at 7am to join a breakfast arrangement down in Sogndal. I logged on to work and made sure that all systems were operating as they should, so that I could keep enjoying my “vacation”
When Anne came back, we drove up to Hodlekve to ski to Høgehaug. This would be my first ski-trip this season. The parking lot was quickly filling up with people who wanted to enjoy the fresh powder snow. We assumed we had the Høgehaug track to ourselves. That was almost true. In addition to us, there was only one other skier.
As for the track – it was only groomed up to the river (by the Red Cross emergency cache), and not beyond. From the river, we had to make our own track, but we got some help from the girl who passed us early on. Karma wasn’t totally happy about this bridge, but she’s a brave girl…
Karma seemed extraordinarily happy about hiking in snow again.
And we were happy about being on skis again. That said – this was NOT Anne’s first ski-trip this season.
What I was most happy about, was to see blue sky again. I’ve had more than a fair share of bad weather since the summer. And not only did we get blue sky – the light was just stunning.
We continued into Stilledalen valley…
For the most part, we had powder snow, but as we approached Høgehaug, there were patches with icy crust. If I were to ski down Blåfjellet one of these days, I’d have to be aware of that.
I was still mesmerized by the light…
As we closed in on the top, the other skier returned. We asked her to take a picture of us, which I planned to use as this year’s Christmas card, after an extensive round in Photoshop (replacing poles with Christmas tree and other decorations)
And after 5km, we reached the top.
We didn’t have time to hang around up here, and after a quick round of pictures, we headed back down.
Karma found it comforting to follow mommy across the bridge…
Trip statistics: 10km, 400 vertical meters, 2h:17m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the trip:
Solvorn, Dec 19 2024
Friday: After the ski-trip to Høgehaug, we drove to good friends in Solvorn. Anne and Mara cooked a delicious meal of duck. It tasted heavenly.
As my main contribution would be doing the dishes, I had time to kill while they were cooking. I took the dog and took a walk in “downtown” Solvorn.
Solvorn is truly a beautiful village by the Lustrafjord.
From here, you can take a small ferry (can hold a few cars) over to Urnes – in case you want to visit the Stave church.
In Solvorn, you also find the Walaker Hotell – a fine old-style hotel. I’ve never spent the night there, but I have been at similar hotels, like Hotel Union Øye.
Solvorn was decorated for Christmas…
And there was Kvitabui. Some years ago, the photographer Vegard Aasen had an exhibition here. He was in the startup phase then and I spent a good deal of money on a cool picture of Store Venjetind.
After a while, it was time to return for dinner. The duck was extraordinarily good, and the dishes were also … extraordinary.
After dinner, we realized that Karma had just entered her 2nd heat period of the year. I had been waiting for it for at least 1,5 months. Old dogs are never on schedule. And then it began snowing. Christmas was closing in for real…
Stedjeåsen (624m), Dec 21 2024
Saturday: Today, I had the luxury to sleep to 10am. Then awaited a couple of hours of shoveling snow. Once that was done, we went into town for shopping. Afterwards, I had a couple of hours free and took Karma up to Stedjeåsen.
I had hoped that we were not the first ones up there today, but there were no tracks from the town side. However, the fresh snow was light and walking wasn’t very hard.
Karma had a great time. Her nose was more under the snow than above…
She’s well past 12 years old now and one should think she’s getting picky on how she spends her energy. But no. She still looks the same as she’s always done.
We got sad news today. Friends of us had to say goodbye to their beloved dog, at age 14. That dog had been to numerous mountains and lived a good life. Time is running out for everybody. We would be lucky if Karma can come along on our hikes and trips one year from now.
It was turning dark when we returned to Anne’s place.
After getting Karma into the bath tub, we called it a day and enjoyed homemade pizza and Home Alone II in the evening. I was also making progress with posting hikes from our very memorable 2014 vacation in northern Norway.
Trip statistics: 6,2km, 590 vertical meters, 1h:45m
Høgehaug (980m), Dec 22 2024
Sunday: This morning started out like Sunday mornings in Sogndal do. Anne went into the Sogndalsfjord along with a bunch of other “fjord dippers”. I am not one of them. I don’t really mind cold water, except on early Sunday mornings. So, I was just there to pick her up.
Afterwards, there was “Christmas coffee” in Gry’s backyard.
I’m sad to say that the snowman didn’t make it to Christmas Eve this year…
It was a nice morning and after the bath, we drove back to Anne’s place with our friends Marianne and Anders and enjoyed a delicious breakfast.
Breakfast finished at noon, and I was a bit restless. But it was too late in the day to go to a proper mountain, and besides – I would do just that the very next day. So, I asked Anne to join me for yet another ski-trip to Høgehaug.
It was unclear what kind of weather we would have. Anything could happen…
But the weather remained stabile and there was just SO MUCH more snow here than two days ago.
Fortunately, enough people had been skiing here today and the track sort of carried Karma’s weight. We met several skiers coming down from Høgehaug and one of them was Knut Armand Iversen. We had a nice chat before we moved on.
Karma’s freedom to enjoy the smells was severely limited.
Eventually, we reached the top.
The plan was to ski Blåfjellet with a friend the next day. But later, I saw that the forecast mentioned fog and so the plan changed to ski Molden instead.
Then we headed back down.
We got a nice bonus on our way down. The snow groomer had been out and prepared a track that ended halfway between the Red Cross emergency cache and Stilledalen. This made the hike easier for Karma and the descent much more enjoyable for us!
But that was until I fell flat on my face. Everything I had on my head was scattered around. Headlamp, glasses and hat. I think one of my skis got jammed in a groove caused by randonee skiers making sharp turns onto the track..
I didn’t think of until I was going to bed. Then, my shoulder was aching like crazy, and I woke up 4-5 times during the night from the pain. That was not optimal, as I had a planned a ski-trip with a friend the next day…
Trip statistics: 9,6km, 400 vertical meters, 2h:14m
