Kyrnosa, Eltvikehornet, Vågsvarden, Feb 8 2025

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Panorama view from Kyrnosa
Panorama view from Kyrnosa

Index

Date Peak Height PF Location WCP/FP MAP
08.02.25 Kyrnosa 450m 129m Stad, Norway MAP
08.02.25 Grøtrøysa 406m 60m Stad, Norway MAP
08.02.25 Eltvikehornet 354m 84m Stad, Norway MAP
08.02.25 Vågsvarden 394m 186m Stad, Norway MAP

Our hike on Stadlandet
Our hike on Stadlandet

Saturday: I felt strongly for hiking outside my local region and decided to take the (relatively) long drive to Stadlandet. The weather was OK and while there were clouds above the mainland, I could see blue sky above Stadlandet.

The main goal was Eltvikehornet – which I hadn’t been to. It seemed doable to do a hike across Kyrnosa, Eltvikehornet and Vågsvarden. Karma hadn’t been to any of these tops, while I visited Kyrnosa and Vågsvarden back in 2011.

It’s been a while since I was on Stadlandet. May 2024, to be more precise.

Revjehornet on Stadlandet
Revjehornet on Stadlandet

Like in 2011, I decided to hike Kyrnosa from Refsnes. I didn’t remember anything from that hike, and so it would be nice with a revisit.

Our trailhead
Our trailhead

We hadn’t hiked for many minutes before the mountain rose above us.

Kyrnosa - rising up in front of us
Kyrnosa – rising up in front of us

Karma seemed eager and happy to be on new turf.

In the steep hillside leading up to Kyrnosa
In the steep hillside leading up to Kyrnosa

On Tinden, it was time for a short break…

View towards Vågsvarden - our last top on this hike
View towards Vågsvarden – our last top on this hike

I expected that the off-trail part of this round-trip hike would be quite strenuous and so I made sure to enjoy every meter along a path.

Approaching Kyrnosa
Approaching Kyrnosa

And then top #1 was in the bag!

Panorama view from Kyrnosa
Panorama view from Kyrnosa

Congratulations, Karma. Maybe before the end of the year, you’ll have 1000 different tops with a prominence of 100 meters or more!

On top of Kyrnosa
On top of Kyrnosa

Our next stop was Grøtrøysa – a small hump just west of the wind turbines. We followed a path that eventually took us away from the top, so the last part was off-trail.

On the way to Grøtrøysa
On the way to Grøtrøysa

To my “delight”, I found out that the prominence of this hump was actually 60m. If it’s not above 100, the next best thing is above 50m.

On Grøtrøysa
On Grøtrøysa

As structures, I don’t really mind wind turbines. What I don’t like is the wildlife effect and the total devastation of the surrounding area. There are constantly massive protests against wind turbines, yet more and more pop up. I find the debate difficult. You really need to have a deep insight into several subjects in order to say something meaningful about it – other than: protect our precious nature, don’t build them and find electricity elsewhere.

Wind turbines on Stadlandet
Wind turbines on Stadlandet

Or what do you think, Karma?

Consider ducking...
Consider ducking…

Our next stop was Eltvikehornet. The off-trail descent from the wind turbines was easy enough.

Next stop - Eltvikehornet
Next stop – Eltvikehornet

But the hike across the meadow was pure torture. Semi-frozen turfs, which didn’t carry our weight.

Aargh!
Aargh!

But eventually, we reached the 354m south top. There are 3 tops on this plateau and to make sure we didn’t miss the high point, we visited all of them.

On Eltvikehornet - for the first time
On Eltvikehornet – for the first time

The west top is also 354m on some maps and it was good to get here. Only one top left to do.

On Eltvikehornet's west top
On Eltvikehornet’s west top

However, we had still had some hiking to do – all off-trail…

View towards Vågsvarden
View towards Vågsvarden

As expected, the hike up to Vågsvarden was pure torture too. Karma seemed tired and I was tired.

Not fun...
Not fun…

Finally, we reached the “ridge” and had only 6-700 meters to go.

Closing in on the top
Closing in on the top

Plan A this morning was to go into the Sunnmøre alps, but because of frost during the night, that would have to be a hike with crampons. OK for me, not so OK for the dog.

Sunnmøre alps
Sunnmøre alps

Finally, we reached the top of Vågsvarden. Karma didn’t lie down, which was good. This was already a strenuous hike and she’s no youngster anymore. But her body language told me that it would be good to begin our descent now.

On Vågsvarden
On Vågsvarden

I looked forward to driving up to Vestkapp after the hike, for pictures. But alas, the road was closed, and I would certainly not be hiking the mountain after this hike…

The Vestkapp plateau
The Vestkapp plateau

And then we headed down. The plan was to aim for lake Tårevatnet and hopefully find a path down there.

Descending Vågsvarden
Descending Vågsvarden

The descent was just torture as well. Karma was clearly wondering what kind of hike this was…

Sorry. I'll make it up to you!
Sorry. I’ll make it up to you!

But we found the path along the lake, and it led us back to the main road, just above where we started out from.

Almost down...
Almost down…

On the way back to Koparneset, I was polite and accepted that the car in front of me struggled to reach the speed limit. This politeness resulted in that I missed the ferry with less than one minute and had to spend 30 useless minutes waiting for the next…

Dang!
Dang!

Trip statistics: 12,6km, 750 vertical meters, 3h:27m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:

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