Sogndal all week…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 23.12.24 | Molden | 1120m | 810m | Luster, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 24.12.24 | Amlaholten | 508m | 265m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 25.12.24 | Kaupangsholtane | 423m | 65m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 26.12.24 | Helleberget | 988m | 108m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 27.12.24 | Andhovden | 512m | 9m | Sogndal, Norway | – | MAP |
| 28.12.24 | Stedjeåsen | 625m | 123m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 29.12.24 | “Masti” | 449m | 1m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Molden (1120m), Dec 23 2024
Monday: This trip is featured on a separate blog post…
In the evening, Christmas traditions had to be respected. First of all – the tree that I had brought all the way from Sunnmøre, from my neighbor’s backyard…
And then – the traditional “rakfisk” – a Norwegian fish dish made from trout or char, salted and autolyzed for two to three months, or even up to a year. Rakfisk is then eaten without cooking and has a strong smell and a pungent salty flavor (source: Wikipedia)
I could feel I was in the process of “landing” the hectic work year. I needed this break…
Amlaholten (508m), Dec 24 2024
Tuesday: The day started with Anne walking Karma down to Sogndalsfjøra and the Christmas morning bath. For Anne, not Karma…
I came down later to pick them up. Maybe I’ll join them one day. I don’t mind cold water per se. I don’t know. Maybe it’s just too early.
Anyway, lots of screaming all around.
Meanwhile, I enjoyed taking pictures. Of the mountains, not the dippers…
After breakfast, we drove to Festingdalen to hike across Amlaholten. The snow was already melting, but there wasn’t much snow there to begin with.
I had now been in Sogndal for a week and hiking Amlaholten last Tuesday was the very first thing I did when I got here.
We both enjoy walking in this forest. This was my 27th visit. It’s not a goal to visit the top a lot of times but I like to keep count. But this was the first visit here on Christmas Eve.
The views were so-and-so today, but we got here before the rain did, which was a bonus.
Then it was time treats. Karma didn’t buy into Anne’s “oh, we forgot to bring treats” gesture.
We’ll probably be back soon…
On our way back to Sogndal, I stopped for some more pictures before the rain came.
Trip statistics: 4,7km, 300 vertical meters, 1h:10m
Kaupangsholtane (423m), Dec 25 2024
Wednesday: Christmas Day morning was a lazy morning, but around noon I figured it was time to get some fresh air, and so I took Karma and drove towards Kaupanger.
The plan was to hike up Kaupangerholten’s northeast ridge – a route I did with Anne and some friends back in November 2010.
The forest ridge looked steep and intimidating from below but turned out to be quite friendly.
We had a nice hike up the forest ridge!
And then we reached the Kaupangerholten viewpoint.
Karma demanded immediate payment…
I got some new tracks for my GPS track map, by following a deer track alongside the regular ridge path.
Eventually, we joined the main path that took us up to the high point.
We descended via Hagen and Hjellhaugen.
As we were a few meters away from the road leading to the car, we ran into goats. At that time, we were on the other side of the fence on the picture. As I didn’t want to bring Karma through this small herd, we had to go on a detour.
2h:16m after leaving, we returned to the car.
On our way to Sogndal, I stopped for some additional pictures. Nice trip!
Trip statistics: 8,6km, 545 vertical meters, 2h:16m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Helleberget (989m), Dec 26 2024
Thursday: The weather in Sogndal was mediocre. It was raining lightly and due to the warm weather, the snow was melting like crazy. And so, we decided to go skiing while we still could. We had already been to Høgehaug twice before Christmas Eve and today, we would try to reach Helleberget. But only if the snow would carry Karma’s weight.
We were almost alone on the track.
On the way to the river, Karma went through the snow and into the creek below. She couldn’t get up on her own and we had to help her out.
6 days ago, we had to cross the river via the bridge. 4 days ago, we could cross the river on snow. But today, we had to resort to the bridge…
Fortunately, the snow had settled, and Karma was able to walk outside the prepared track.
On our way to Helleberget, we passed a tree that was too good to just pass…
Then we aimed for the north ridge. From a distance, there didn’t seem to be much snow left.
But like often, there is more snow than meets the eye and we were able to ski all the way up. The weather wasn’t so pleasant, though.
It was windy and foggy on top, but I wouldn’t call it *bad* weather. We’ve seen much worse.
We took a different route back to the Høgehaug track.
The prepared track was a bit challenging. Visibility was not so good (flat light), and all the tracks had left an icy crust.
When we got back to the place where Karma fell through, we marked the spot with a branch, as it was a bit difficult to see the hole when coming from above.
All in all, a nice trip!
Trip statistics: 9,5km, 430 vertical meters, 2h:41m
Andhovden (512m), Dec 27 2024
Friday: Officially, I was still on holiday, but I had to look after stuff at work and that occupied my morning hours.
After breakfast, I wanted to hike Andhovden above Hermannsverk and Anne wanted to come along. This is a hike I’ve done 6-7 times (not sure), and I enjoy it every time.
The steep path from Njøs to Bjørgahaug is a testament of Karma’s climbing skills. The first part went OK, like always.
But higher up, she needed a push. Maybe because she didn’t got time to prepare accordingly.
It was supposed to rain today, but so far, we were in the clear…
After a while, we reached the Bjørgahaug viewpoint.
Then we continued towards Andhovden. This route has a “crux” but I found a different solution for Karma today.
And then Andhovden was “in the bag”, yet again. This isn’t a top, just a forest hump on the way to a much higher mountain…
We agreed to proceed up to Våkeldahaug.
At Våkeldahaug (aka Budeiesteinen?), we met two hikers. One of them was Jan Bremer Remø, whom I’ve met here before. We had an interesting chat about the mountains on Tenerife…
From Våkeldahaug, we continued towards Hangsete.
From Hangsete, we went back to the tractor road that we had passed, going up.
We would now follow this tractor road down. The road was partly icy, so we had our ice cleats on.
Again, a really nice round-trip hike!
Trip statistics: 6,7km, 650 vertical meters, 2h:38m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Stedjeåsen (624m), Dec 28 2024
Saturday: Today, it was raining. Still, I drove up Hodlekve with the intention to ski up to Reppanipa. But I turned around at the parking. It was raining quite a bit, it was windy and the visibility on the mountain was low.
Instead, I chose to hike Stedjeåsen. I decided to try out a path that Anne had mentioned a few days earlier, starting just above her place. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t seen this path before, after all my off-trail hikes in this forest.
I’m tempted to think that this is a relatively new path, as I can see from my GPS track map that I have crossed this path several times, even followed it in parts. But I have no recollection of it.
After a while, the path led us up to an old farm building that has seen better days.
Eventually, we joined the regular trail system.
We stopped by the Sogndalsfjorden viewpoint before going off-trail towards the high point.
Soon after, we were on the true high point.
As I was already soaking wet, I decided that we should return via Skardet. That would mean deep snow at times, but Karma seemed to enjoy herself.
The descent to Skjeldestad was a bit icy, but we made it back without a single fall.
Trip statistics: 7,3km, 640 vertical meters, 2h:03m
Vikane, Masti (449m), Dec 29 2024
Sunday: It was still raining, and I didn’t have a strong motivation for hiking any mountain tops. When Anne suggested an easy walk from Vikane to Eide, I was OK with that.
I like the forest trail from Vikane. Anne told me they would upgrade this path for bikes and prams, I assume they would turn this into a gravel road. If that is the case, I will miss the trail as it is now.
Yet, I understand that it quite bumpy in places…
When we got to Varpet. It had stopped raining (temporarily) and that was a huge bonus.
I didn’t really want to go to Eide and got acceptance for returning to Vikane via forest paths above the Sogndal – Kaupanger road.
At Valeberg, we crossed the road, followed a path up to the quarry and followed and old tractor road from the quarry.
We followed the old tractor road almost until it ended. I said to Anne that I would like to visit “Masti” – an antenna further up the forest. At least that would give me a “fixed point” for this hike. To get there, we had to get up to a higher tractor road and we had some steep terrain ahead of us. I’m sure Anne didn’t realize what she said OK to…
Finally, we reached “Masti“. The easy walk that Anne had in her mind turned out to be ~600 vertical meters in total.
From Masti, we followed the path that soon connected to the Kjørnes – Loftesnesfjellet path.
Now it was raining AND snowing. The otherwise OK viewpoint towards Sogndal offered nothing today.
We followed roads and took shortcuts where possible, through Kjørnes and back to Vikane. A fun hike!
Trip statistics: 8,5km, 600 vertical meters, 2h:19m
