3 days of rain and then OK rest of the week
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 03.02.25 | Laupsnipa | 562m | 380m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 04.02.25 | Gyrinakken | 365m | 157m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 05.02.25 | Rørene | 295m | 72m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 05.02.25 | Myklebusthornet | 329m | 329m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 06.02.25 | Blåtind | 697m | 697m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 07.02.25 | Garnestua | 654m | 417m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | 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 |
| 09.02.25 | Tørlingehaugane | 541m | 33m | Hareid/Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 09.02.25 | Storebroren | 620m | 177m | Hareid/Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Laupsnipa (562m), Feb 3 2025
Monday: The week didn’t start out so good. I was not feeling well, and I really should have spent the afternoon in bed. At the same time, doing a hike would be a good measure of how bad it was, plus the fact that I didn’t have to feel bad about not walking the dog. A steep 550 vertical meter uphill would surely give the answer, and I sat course for Voldnes and Laupsnipa.
I started out very slowly. Karma was wondering what was going on…
The weather was strange. It started out windy, then it got quiet, then it got windy again. It was also raining, then it wasn’t raining, and so on…
Most of the path was icy, but it was easy to hike outside the path.
And then we reached the top. I didn’t feel worse than before the hike, which was good…
I assume many think they have reached the top when they get to the cairn. But the cairn is 558m and the high point (100m to the west) is 562m.
Like almost always, we did an off-trail route down. That’s when Karma truly came alive…
I didn’t regret the hike. But the next working day will be hard I’m not on an upward curve by then…
Trip statistics: 5,1km, 550 vertical meters, 1h:36m
Gyrinakken (365m), Feb 4 2025
Tuesday: This day started out like the previous – bad. But I was able to get an appointment at the Doctor’s office and walked out with a 10-day antibiotics prescription. Hopefully, that will do the trick.
Maybe it was just the Placebo effect, but I felt a tad better after work and decided to hike Gyrinakken – in the rain. I tend to prefer the forest tops when it’s raining. It’s never just raining, it’s windy too.
I started out slowly though. Just one foot in front of the other. We would surely get there in time.
Karma is OK with this route. It’s not yihaa but she doesn’t protest either. I think she knows there is potential, as we never return the way we came.
Eventually, we reached the top. It must have been my slowest walk to date. But I wasn’t in a hurry.
The “big” question was where to go next. My “money” had been on an off-trail descent to Rosskar and then along forest paths, maybe via Heida. But I felt a need for lights and so we descended to the Go Kart track.
Then we walked alongside the main road (on the safe side of the fence) down to the lit trail at Leikongeidet. Karma doesn’t like this trail. Too many fast laps here in the past, probably – skiing or running.
So, she became super-happy when we got on the path to Brendeåsen.
A good hike in the rain. And I could swear I felt a little better than 24 hours earlier, coming down from Laupsnipa. We’ll see…
Trip statistics: 7km, 355 vertical meters, 1h:45m
Rørene (295m), Myklebusthornet (329m), Feb 5 2025
Wednesday: Working day in Ålesund and MRI around lunchtime. They didn’t tell me anything of course. That’s not the way this works. I guess the orthopedist will send me an appointment one of these days. I’m curious if I have damaged an already bad knee even more, through the fall I had some months ago. I don’t notice anything when I hike, but when I pass 10km I can feel it starts to ache. And there are several positions where the knee is loudly complaining.
The weather was crap from the beginning. It was pouring down when I walked the dog around the block at 6am and it was pouring down when I walked the dog outside the office at 10:30am. But when my working day ended at 3:30pm, it had cleared up.
Due to the heavy traffic, I chose to drive to Ellingsøya, hike Rørene and Myklebusthornet and get some daylight. The days are getting noticeable longer, which is a motivating fact. I love skiing down a mountain, but I’m not winter’s biggest fan. And with winter, I foremost think about darkness and bad weather.
We started out from Nes stadion on the north side of the island. It had been quite a few years since we hiked up the tractor road. In the recent years, we’ve started out from Grimstad.
Karma was moderately enthusiastic. Can’t blame her. Except for the short walk in pouring rain outside the office, she had been in the car for 9,5 hours. It didn’t help when I chose to do an off-trail shortcut from the Rørene – Myklebusthornet pass.
I hoped to see some colors in the sky, and I got some!
And finally, we reached the top of Rørene.
The weather south of Ålesund didn’t look so good, and so I didn’t want to waste any time. We sat course for Myklebusthornet.
The past days’ rain had come down as snow in the mountains. Are we getting another wave of winter now?
I kept checking on the Ålesund weather, and the bad weather was no longer south of Ålesund – it was in Ålesund. If we were to avoid this shower, we’d better hurry…
Eventually, we reached the top of Myklebusthornet, and it was clear that if we hiked back the way we came, we would get a decent shower. I just assumed it would be rain.
So, I decided to do an off-trail descent in the nearest forest.
Halfway down, the shower came upon us. It was hail, not rain. But we were quite sheltered and the shower didn’t bother us much. And finally, the shower moved on.
Driving home, I concluded that we had been quite lucky with the weather during our hike. It looked quite turbulent out there…
It was raining a lot on our way to Sulesund. Triple speed on the windshield wipers. But when we got to Sulesund – waiting for the next ferry – it had cleared up. But ominous clouds were lurking above the Hareidlandet island…
Trip statistics: 5,4km, 425 vertical meters, 1h:27m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP) from the hike:
Blåtind (697m), Feb 6 2025
Thursday: This hike is featured on a separate post…
Garnestua (654m), Feb 7 2025
Friday: This hike is featured on a separate post…
Kyrnosa (450m), Grøtrøysa (406m), Eltvikehornet (354m), Vågsvarden (394m), Feb 8 2025
Saturday: This hike is featured on a separate post…
Storebroren (620m), Feb 9 2025
Sunday: Looking at my GPS map of tracks this morning, I noticed that the density of tracks in the Indredalen valley (Brandal, Hareidlandet) wasn’t all that impressive and decided to do something about it. The goal would be Storebroren, aka Søre Broren.
So, after breakfast, I drove to Hareid, then Brandal and up to the first of the 3 parking lots in Indredalen.
There are two paths on the north side of the river in Indredalen. I had previously hiked the one along the river so today, we followed the upper one.
This path led us up to Tørlingeskaret – the pass between Tørlingehaugane and Sneldelida. For some reason, I had never hiked this route.
At Tørlingeskaret, I noticed that there was a path bypassing Litle Tørlingehaug and we followed it.
A bit later, we rejoined the path and followed it up to the highest point on Tørlingehaugane. From here, we had a good overview of the route ahead.
There was a cold wind, and it was actually snowing very lightly on our way down from Tørlingehaugane.
I looked forward to reaching the top. For some reason, I always hike Storebroren late in the year. This must surely be the earliest I’ve hiked or skied to this top.
Eventually, we got on the “Brørene” (the brothers) ridge and hiked across Nøre (Lisje) and Midtre Broren.
Finally, Søre Broren appeared in front of us.
Some minutes later, the goal for this hike was reached.
In the cold wind, I spent a good minute with the camera while Karma was enjoying her treats.
I wanted this to be as much of a round-trip hike as possible, and so we followed the path towards Mosvasseidet until we went off-trail and hiked down to the path taking us back to Tørlingehaugane.
I had expected Karma to be tired after yesterday’s hike on Stadlandet, but going off-trail seemed to double her energy level.
To avoid crossing our tracks, I was considering bypassing Tørlingehaugane, but in the end I decided to hike back up to the top and go off-trail from there.
It was nice to get back to an elevation where I didn’t have to have the hood on, to keep the cold wind out…
Now, we just had to figure out where to go, in order to get back to the trailhead. I decided to aim for the river in Bondebakkane and when the river merged with the one from Grimstaddalen, we should find the path along the river.
It took a little while to find the path along the river, as the map didn’t match the terrain. But eventually, we were on our way back to the trailhead.
I love the deep green part of this forest…
On our way back home, I decided to drive to Eiksund to pick up a glove I forgot there while taking pictures after the Blåtind hike earlier this week. More pictures were taken now, and I also made several stops in Haddal to capture the beautiful light.
Trip statistics: 11,5km, 670 vertical meters, 2h:54m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the hike:
