Molden, Dec 23 2024

Arnt Flatmo - Fjordpeaks.com

1 year ago

Superb weather and snow!

Index

Date	Peak	Height	PF	Location	WCP/FP	MAP
23.12.24	Molden	1120m	810m	Luster, Norway	WCP	MAP

Monday: Today, the plan was to ski Molden with Storm. But there was only one problem. My shoulder was just partly working. But as I really wanted this ski-trip, I was prepared to ignore the pain and make the best of it.

So, I drove to Solvorn to pick up Storm. His parents are chiropractors, and they told me to do some specific moves and concluded that nothing seemed damaged. They also told me that this trip could actually help.

We drove up to Krossen and I was very happy to see a track from the parking. Anything else would have been really surprising.

And then we sat course for Molden.

Molden is not the best mountain for randonée skiing, but it’s certainly not among the worst either. The problem is that the descent above the forest is a bit too short and the descent through the forest can be slightly cumbersome.

But there would be no complaining today. The weather was gorgeous!

We had a pause at Svarthiller.

It was cool to see the fog just above the fjord. I would have preferred the fog being a couple of hundreds meter higher up, but I take what I can get…

Storm (17,5 years old) hasn’t done many randonée trips and while he is a strong kid, my advice to him was to become more familiar with his equipment. Almost to the point where he can handle his gear blindfolded. It helps to know your gear when the weather is bad. Today, he struggled with bindings and one of his ski pole baskets. The basket wouldn’t stick. I solved the problem with duct tape. Now he knows about duct tape…

Then we proceeded towards the top. I found it a bit odd that there were good tracks up the mountain, but almost no tracks down the mountain. Yesterday was Sunday and surely there were lots of people up then? Had the wind erased the downhill tracks?

We were almost up, and Storm already looked forward to the descent.

I stopped by a ledge to get a panorama picture of the Luster fjord.

And then we went up to the high point.

It was a little windy (and cold) and so we sat course for the shelter.

Here, we met Jan-Erik Røneid, aka “Moldenkongen” (the king of Molden). I guess he has been up here a lot of times….

He told us that there was hardly anyone up here the day before, hence the lack of downhill tracks.

We spent a couple of minutes inside the shelter before we moved up to the western top (approx. 1116m) – where the cairn is located.

I had time for some more pictures while Storm got ready for the descent…

A couple of minutes later, he got going…

The snow was just great, but as mentioned earlier – the upper descent is just too short!

Storm may not know his equipment inside and out yet, but he is a crack skier!

And just like his mother predicted, my shoulder didn’t bother me at all. In fact, it felt much better…

I’ve known Storm most of his life and I was very glad that he wanted to go skiing with an old fart. That said, I’m not dead yet. He didn’t have to wait for me for long…

We had a good run down the mountain!

Then something strange happened. Far down in the forest, the snow stuck to our skis like glue. It didn’t help to scrape it off. The snow came back on. It was almost like someone had put something sticky in the track. Good thing this happened very close to the trailhead…

I drove Storm back to Solvorn and we agreed to do more skiing, later in the season.

On my way back to Sogndal, I had to stop a couple of times for pictures…