A great week in Sogndal…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 27.01.25 | Stedjeåsen | 625m | 123m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 28.01.25 | Stedjeåsen | 625m | 123m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 29.01.25 | Skjeggen | 738m | 25m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 30.01.25 | Amlaholten | 508m | 265m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 31.01.25 | Synarhaug | 662m | 6m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 01.02.25 | Molden | 1120m | 810m | Luster, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 01.02.25 | Kaupangsholtane | 423m | 65m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 01.02.25 | Trollhaug | 408m | 15m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 02.02.25 | Svarstadveten | 591m | 38m | Stryn, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 02.02.25 | Hogden | 601m | 168m | Stryn, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Stedjeåsen (624m), Jan 27 2025
Monday: I worked non-stop from 7am until 3:30pm, and by then, Karma was giving me her “long eyes”. I looked out the window and concluded that the weather was changing for the worse and there would not be a ski-trip in the mountains this evening.
As it was getting darker by the minute, I just decided to go out Anne’s door and head straight into the Stedjeåsen forest.
I do love this forest, and I’ve hiked here many, many times. But there’s something about the many paths that I haven’t figured out yet. There’s always something not “adding up”. But today, that would change.
Karma seemed to be enjoying herself and it seems that the “mojo” is coming back to her.
After a while, I got bored with the paths and went off-trail. Karma liked that. Life is best outside the beaten track…
When it got properly dark, I stuck to the paths. I didn’t want to risk Karma getting a branch in her eye.
In this forest, we’re protected from even the worst weather. Well, except for hurricanes. The trees could kill you. But I could hear the wind was getting stronger and stronger, and I was glad I didn’t go skiing. It was snowing very lightly here, and I assumed it was snowing a whole lot more higher up in the valley.
And then we reached the top. This was Karma’s first visit to Stedjeåsen in 2025. I expect it won’t be her last…
So – on the way down, I headed into the part of the forest where the paths have been confusing me. This time, I would just follow them until I had the overview. First, I headed northwest until I came to a fork. I turned east and decided to follow it until I found out how it connected with the other paths. I realized that earlier, I had been tempted by other forks and turned on to other paths. Eventually, this path took me back to the main trail – at a point where I didn’t know there was a fork. I was super-happy. Now, it all added up!
Trip statistics: 6,3km, 600 vertical meters, 2h:01m
Stedjeåsen (624m), Jan 28 2025
Tuesday: Again, an intense working day, non-stop from 6:30am until 3pm, eating lunch in front of the computer. Fortunately, the last meeting ended 3pm and by 3:05, I was on my out the door. I was on the clock, as we were going to watch the new movie “SKI” in Sogndal. And I also needed time to take a shower. I didn’t have time to drive anywhere, so it had to be Stedjeåsen one more time.
I wasn’t sure if Karma would submit a protest by starting out along the same route two days in a row, but she didn’t. She seemed enthusiastic!
We kept a steady pace up the forest, and I think Karma was wondering what the rush was all about…
When we got to the mailbox, Karma was expecting treats. But my new MO is to go to the true high point, every time.
Walking across the meadow with this amount of snow is OK. It’s worse when there’s 50cm+ of snow and no tracks.
Some minutes later, Karma definitely got her treats.
Not only did we have daylight, we also had sunshine. That was the treat I wanted!
We stopped by the Sogndalsfjorden viewpoint and enjoyed a couple of minutes in the sunset.
OK, time to get back down. I didn’t have the heart to tell Karma that she would have to spend a couple of hours all by herself this afternoon. She would find out, sooner or later…
At 6pm, we were at the Sogndal cinema, ready to be entertained. The creator (and already a legendary skier) of the film – Nikolai Schirmer – was in Sogndal and introduced the film. As for the film – we enjoyed it a lot! The main characters in the film are some crazy mofos. That’s for sure!
Trip statistics: 5,5km, 600 vertical meters, 1h:29m
Skjeggen (738m), Jan 29 2025
Wednesday: Another intense working day, non-stop from 7am to 4pm, except for the 20 minutes I walked the dog down by the fjord. I really wanted to go skiing this evening, but I could probably not bring Karma (too much snow), and I got a bad conscience about it. So, I figured I could go skiing another day and do a hike to Skjeggen instead.
After work, I was delighted to hear that Anne wanted to join us. We drove up to the Røvhaugane parking (110m) and hiked from there.
We didn’t get a whole lot of daylight before the headlamps had to come on.
When we passed Kjørrdalen, Anne decided to do some do-gooding and clear the snow in front of the door.
The big question was – were there tracks above Kjørrdalen? Without tracks, this hike would become much harder, especially for Karma. But fortunately, there were tracks!
I enjoyed this walk a lot. There was no wind and other than Anne’s occasional chatter, it was dead silent.
At some point, Anne asked me how high this top was. When I said around 750 meters, she got shocked and told me that if she had known, she wouldn’t have signed up for this hike. But that’s the ascent voice talking. Once we got up, she was quite pleased.
I had to stop by the high point (of course). There were no tracks there, and after a couple of minutes, I joined Anne and Karma by the viewpoint.
Her “tone” was far more optimistic now. Just a loooong downhill from here on…
And then we headed back down…
After passing Kjørrdalen, we met a couple (foreign) who was going to spend the night there. Anne and I talked about doing the same one day…
At Åberge, we stopped by “Fruens Vilje” – the Madam’s will. To me, it sounds like a poor guy got an undesired carpenter job from his wife. But the result was nice, and open for everyone passing by. No whisky there, though.
Trip statistics: 9km, 650 vertical meters, 2h:45m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max from the hike)
Amlaholten (508m), Jan 30 2025
Thursday: After work, I drove to Amlabukti, Kaupanger to hike Amlaholten from the fjord. It’s one of my favorite routes in the Sogndal area.
Karma seemed enthusiastic and is looking more and more like herself…
I love going off-trail in this forest, and I always aim for the steepest parts that we will survive.
Daylight was fading, but I knew that I would reach the top (and then some) before the headlamp had to come on.
We hiked and scrambled…
This time, I exploited terrain outside where we’ve been before. We passed a long section of steep cliffs, hoping to find a passage up. We found one, but it was so steep that I had to dig my fingers into the frozen ground to avoid falling, while keeping the dog on a leash.
After that, I was happy about following the normal route to the top.
We were almost out of daylight, but not quite.
It’s amazing how much fake daylight the camera can produce…
I always try to get some new tracks for my GPS map when hiking here. And today, we were able to do the entire descent without being near any of my previous tracks. Big joy!
Eventually, we returned to Amlabukti.
I spent some minutes taking pictures down by the fjord, but most of them turned out as crap. The below picture was the only one I was somewhat OK with.
When I returned to Sogndal, I had to stop again. I don’t seem to be able to pass the new Loftesnes bridge without taking a picture…
It was a nice evening, with ultra-light snowflakes in the air…
Trip statistics: 5,1km, 505 vertical meters, 1h:38m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Synarhaug (662m), Jan 31 2025
Friday: The working day was so intense that when I finished work, I had no idea what kind of weather it was outside, other that it was snowing in the morning while the forecast promised sunshine and zero precipitation.
But it had cleared up now and I wanted to hike with the dog rather than skiing alone. So, where to go? The usual routes had been covered well in December and January. I needed something brand new…
A while back, I had decided to visit the “donut” Synarhaug in the forest below Hesteggi. When you’re running out of mountains, you’re lowering the bar. On the very bottom of the bar are the “donuts”. They are insignificant humps with a single 20m contour encircling them. Synarhaug is in that category.
We started out from the Hesteggi trailhead at Kjørnes, and I knew that Karma would put up the “oh no, not Hesteggi again” attitude. And she did. But I got her to the Valeberg trail fork close to the trailhead and she went – “oh! I can dig this”.
I let her enjoy the path for a couple of minutes before we went off-trail. Karma didn’t dig that as much as I did, but she tagged along.
I am a total fan of the Kaupanger forest, and I never get tired of hiking here. Especially when I run into cliffs and must find a way up or around.
I decided not to take on the cliffs today. The ground was frozen and slippery, and I didn’t want to risk falling. So, I let the cliffs lead me into terrain that we both could hike.
The cliffs led us to “Masti” – an antenna we could have easily reached along the path from Kjørnes. But this was way more fun!
We then got on the tractor road to Loftesnesfjellet and followed it up the very first hill before we continued off-trail into the forest. This was brand new terrain for me. We ran into a distinct valley where it was too steep to cross in the lower section.
After hiking up along the west side for a little while, we could cross and set course for Synarhaug.
It was a proper amount of snow > 550m. The snow carried Karma’s weight, but not mine. Still, it wasn’t too bad. I was wearing low terrain shoes, no gaiters and terrific socks. I was never cold.
Eventually, we had the insignificant hump ahead of us. It was significant enough today…
There was two “high points” on this hump. Both are 662,5m – according to official data. So, you might as well turn around at the first point.
Then it got dark.
We traversed the forest westbound until we reached the Loftesnesfjellet tractor road.
We followed this road down to “Masti” and followed the regular forest path back down. The path was very icy in parts and my ice cleats came into very good use.
On my way back to Anne’s place, I just had to stop and take one more picture of the Loftesnes bridge. I was 90% happy with today’s picture.
Trip statistics: 6,2km, 595 vertical meters, 2h:10m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
Molden (1120m), Feb 1 2025
Saturday: This trip is featured on a separate post…
Kaupangsholtane (423m), Trollhaug (408m), Feb 1 2025
Saturday: After skiing Molden, I drove back to Anne’s place, picked up Karma and headed for Kaupanger. Anne was going to Fjærland this afternoon and didn’t have time to come along.
The goal was to hike across the Kaupangsholtane high point, take it from there and hopefully get some new off-trail tracks for my GPS map.
Karma seemed surprised by getting hike #2 for the day, but didn’t submit any protests.
I was enjoying myself a lot. If you’ve been following this blog, you may have observed that I totally love the Kaupanger forest, and especially the off-trail part. So far, we were on a path but that would soon change.
When we reached the high point, I had to figure out where to go next. I decided to hike to Trollhaug. I hadn’t been there since 2018.
Now, we went off-trail…
To be completely honest, I’d rather be skiing on Storehaugfjellet, but there will probably be a time for that, before the snow is gone…
Meanwhile, I enjoyed the present. When we got to Trollhaug, Karma got treats and was happy.
Now, the only goal was just to get back to the trailhead, covering as much new ground as possible…
If I ever were in doubt (I never was), sunshine does good things to my mind…
To avoid having to walk along the main road, we had yet another detour into the forest in order to get back to the trailhead.
Trip statistics: 4,1km, 240 vertical meters, 1h:10m
Svarstadveten (591m), Hogden (601m), Feb 2 2025
Sunday: After a late breakfast, I packed the car and sat course for Ytre Søre Sunnmøre. It had been a good week in Sogndal, but I felt tired, certainly not in shape but that wouldn’t stop me from doing a hike or going on a ski-trip on my way home.
I considered skiing on Utvikfjellet but abandoned the idea when I got there. There would be no running for Karma this week. But on my way down from Utvikfjellet, I started thinking about Hogden. The top is only 601m and there would surely be a limit to how much snow it could be up there? When I got Hogden in view, I didn’t see much snow at all!
I drove up to the top of Holevegen, but this time we wouldn’t start out along the road along the river. Instead, we took the “Ola Vik” tractor road (#2).
Eventually, we got to “Flo Skue”, and I took some pictures of Stryn. But the view later on was much better, so I tossed them away.
I was tired of zigzags by now and headed straight up (off-trail) to the next tractor road.
All of a sudden, we were in skiing terrain…
When we got to the Tverrfjellsvegen road, we also got a decent view towards Stryn.
From the road, we continued off-trail up the forest. This was the most fun part of the entire trip.
When we got above the forest, it got harder. This was winter and the only sensible way of moving around up here, was on skis.
The morale soon became “one step at a time”, and it was good to leave Svarstadveten behind.
Hogden was now only a 1,3km walk away. I had been hoping to find a track up here, but I only saw some ski-tracks.
I was SO HAPPY when we reached the top. Only downhill from here. Or wait… not quite. Before we could enjoy the downhill, we had to follow the ridge for 0,4km.
Karma had snow issues. I tried to remove the snowballs a couple times along the hike but in the end, I just gave up. They stuck like glue. All that mattered was that she was technically able to walk…
Finally, the descent could begin.
The descent was quite fun too!
Then we reached the cross-country track, but we were on a shortcut mission and just crossed straight over.
Eventually, we reached the tractor road along the river, but we didn’t follow it all the way down. Instead, we did one final off-trail, shortcut directly towards the car.
The hike didn’t help my condition, whatever it was. I was so tired on the way home from Stryn, but I was glad we hiked in Stryn, because it was raining back home. The rest of the evening was just miserable. I hope week 6 will start better than how week 5 ended…
But it had been a good week in total. My average vertical meters per day was 628, which is quite acceptable in the winter season! In addition, it had been a very busy work week…
Trip statistics: 8,1km, 560 vertical meters, 2h:28m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
