Really bad weather, then just bad weather…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 03.03.25 | Rambjøra | 132m | 109m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 04.03.25 | Høgåsen | 240m | 240m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 05.03.25 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 06.03.25 | Sletteheidane | 542m | 44m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 06.03.25 | Rjåhornet | 600m | 107m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 07.03.25 | Haddalshornet | 611m | 103m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 08.03.25 | Vardehornet | 600m | 60m | Ørsta/Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 08.03.25 | Melshornet | 809m | 567m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 08.03.25 | Grøthornet | 745m | 57m | Ørsta/Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 08.03.25 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 09.03.25 | Høgskjerva | 317m | 9m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 09.03.25 | Osberget | 134m | 36m | Ulstein, Norway | MAP |
Øyrahornet attempt, Rambjøra (132m), Mar 3 2025
Monday: At 8am, I was at the Vet in Ålesund for Karma’s planned removal of the womb. But first, the Vet wanted to measure her progesterone level. Unfortunately, it was still high, and the Vet recommended that we delayed the surgery a couple of weeks.
I finished my working day in Ålesund and returned home, only to get Karma in the car for a hike to Øyrahornet. The weather was in general very unpleasant but right now, it wasn’t raining. Anne wasn’t in the mood for a hike right then and there, so it was only Karma and me.
The Øyrahaugen – Øyrahornet route is quite wet after rain, but it gives us 400 vertical meters within a relatively short distance.
1 minute before we got above the forest, I thought this would be a slam dunk hike.
But seconds after getting above the forest, something happened. Either we entered a new weather zone, or a terrible shower came along. The rain felt like hail and Karma turned around without asking for permission. I had no interest in forcing her up the mountain in this weather.
On our way down, I called Anne and said I would take a walk across Rambjøra instead. Now, she was in the mood for a walk and said she would come along.
We did the usual round – from our front door and straight onto the Rambjøra trail.
The weather can be as unpleasant as it wants. We don’t feel much of it in this forest.
I didn’t expect to get 500 vertical meters today, but I had hoped for 400. It turned out to be only 300 and with bad weather the rest of the week, it can be challenging to meet my goal of 500m in average. I will never let it become an obsession, just a goal to reach for – to get me across the doorstep. I’m inherently as lazy as the next guy.
Shortly after getting back home, the weather turned awful again. I was so happy we made it back in time. We would have been OK in the forest, but not along the roads on the way back to the house.
Trip statistics – Øyrahornet: 2km, 160 vertical meters, 0h:33m
Trip statistics – Rambjøra: 3,6km, 140 vertical meters, 0h:46m
Høgåsen (240m), Mar 4 2025
Tuesday: The weather was bad this afternoon. Very unpleasant.
So, I proposed a hike to Høgåsen on Dimnøya. We would be sheltered from the wind most of the way. We would just have to endure a windy top for a few seconds. Anne agreed, reluctantly.
We took the route from Kleven Verft (shipyard). The wind was OK. It was just pouring down.
In the thick forest, it was OK.
As we rose above the forest, it was pouring down again, but the wind was still not too bad.
But when we reached the top, it was exactly as I had thought it would be. I think Anne was taken a little by surprise.
Clearly, we couldn’t stay there for long. But we didn’t have to go far before the wind was tolerable. It was just one of those days where the exposed tops had a wind strength that was totally crazy.
Back in the car, we both agreed that the evening would be much more enjoyable than it would have been without this hike.
Trip statistics: 3,8km, 230 vertical meters, 1h:03m
Huldrehornet (271m), Mar 5 2025
Wednesday: Anne left for Sogndal after lunch and the weather was crap all day long.
I still had a hope that Karma would join me for a hike to Huldrehornet. It was hard just to get out of her bed. She had “I don’t want to go out” written all over her face. But this often changes once she hits the trail.
She did hit the trail. She walked 10 meters, did her thing, turned around and ran back to the car. There was no point in discussing this. She drew the “I’m too old for this s…” card. I respect that.
So, I took the hike by myself. Man, it was raining.
Like yesterday, the weather on the tops was way worse than 5m below the top.
Even though I returned home soaking wet, it was still very nice to have been out!
Trip statistics: 2,5km, 250 vertical meters, 0h:42m
Rjåhornet (600m), Mar 6 2025
Thursday: The storm had passed. It was still raining, but there wasn’t much wind left. I drove up to Leikongeidet to hike Røddalshorn on a different route than we normally do. But shortly after we headed out, it stopped raining, and I saw an opportunity to go to Rjåhornet instead. More vertical meters. More fun!
After a while we left the path and went off-trail. No point in going all the way to “Skaret” and come back around. Off-trail on the saturated ground was a bit strenuous, but Karma was happy, and I decided to be happy too.
It was nice to reach the mountain plateau. I decided that we should stop by Sletteheidane on our way to Rjåhornet.
From Sletteheidane, we sat course for Rjåhornet’s west ridge. It’s been a while since we hiked that route.
It was definitely windier above 500m, and it was raining again. But as long as Karma looked happy, it was all good.
Our descent route would be along Bakketua and down to the Leikongbakken hill. It’s a route Karma knows well, and she took the lead.
It was just so nice to be able to reach 600m again. The past 3 days had been just terrible.
Eventually, we got on the new gravel road and had 8-900m to go before we were back at the car.
Trip statistics: 7,6km, 600 vertical meters, 1h:43m
Haddalshornet (611m), Mar 7 2025
Friday: It was impossible to get a grip on the weather. Either it was windy and raining, or it was not. How high could we go without risking Karma being whipped? Eventually, I decided on trying to hike Haddalshornet from Britahaugen. It’s been a very long time since we started out from here.
It didn’t rain when we headed out, but it was raining 5 minutes later…
I still had a high hope that we would reach the top…
At the first junction, I had to choose between two paths leading to the top. I chose neither of them and continued off-trail up an inviting birch forest. But alas, above the birch forest, it was pure hell.
I screamed in agony. Poor kiddo. But to her advantage – lower gravity…
Eventually we got above this nightmare…
… and could focus on getting to the top before the rain sat in again.
The rain showers were close by.
As we approached the top, it started raining again and there was fog.
But just before we reached the top, it cleared up again.
We could now enjoy a couple of nice minutes on top, without rain or wind.
For descent, we took the Havåg route.
But halfway down the Havåg route, there is a fork to Britahaugen and we took that fork. It was getting quite dark as we were approaching the trailhead, but the headlamp never came on.
Good hike!
Trip statistics: 6,5km, 630 vertical meters, 1h:51m
Melshornet (809m), Mar 8 2025
Saturday: This hike is featured on a separate post…
Huldrehornet (271m), Mar 8 2025
Saturday: The storm on Mon through Wed had seriously affected my daily vertical meter gain in a negative way. I had started catching up with a couple of 600m hikes on Thu and Fri, but the work wasn’t over. The Melshornet hike gave me 830 vertical meters, but I decided to go up the Huldrehornet forest, on our way home from Volda. I let Karma rest in the car.
I used to do this route in 11-12 minutes 10 years ago, but today, I spent a whopping 18 minutes on the 1,1km, 250 vertical meters. But to my defence, I had just done a 2,5-hour hike in Volda.
But I got inspiration to see if I could get down to, like, 15 minutes before the summer. Aging wouldn’t feel as terrible, then.
Once back down, I had only 400 vertical meters left to preserve another week of minimum 500 vertical meters per day, in average. It would have to be some pretty harsh weather to prevent me from reaching that goal…
Trip statistics: 2,4km, 250 vertical meters, 0h:31m
Høgskjerva (317m), Osberget (134m), Mar 9 2025
Sunday: It was raining, and the mountains were foggy. When I looked out the window, my only ambition was to scrape together 405 vertical meters, so I could end the week on a 500m per day average.
Karma didn’t radiate energy either and so I had to be a bit clever about where to go. I either had to find a trail I knew she liked, or it had to be a trail she probably wouldn’t remember. I chose to head out from Skeide (outside Ulsteinvik) and not come back down until 405 meters was in the bag.
Karma didn’t turn around but walked slowly. Like – I don’t want this, but OK, let’s give it a try.
The plan was to hike across Skeidshornet, Skarpeidet, Høgskjerva and Osberget. That round should give me enough vertical meters.
Above the forest, I realized that it would be snowing at a certain elevation. That came as a surprise.
We arrived on Skeidshornet in a mix of snow and rain. There wasn’t snow on the ground yet, but as we hadn’t reached the highest point on the route yet, we would just have to wait and see.
And sure enough. On Skarpeidet, there was snow. Not a whole lot, but wet and not welcome.
Fortunately, the weather wasn’t bad, like in the beginning of the week. We can tolerate both rain and snow as long as it isn’t windy.
As we passed Høgskjerva, Karma was more like herself and seemed to enjoy being out.
We left the snow behind and headed for the rain…
I enjoy hiking in the Osberget forest, and so does Karma. Especially when she knows that the trig. point on Osberget is also a “treat stop”.
On our way back to Skeide, we passed the “Troll forest”.
The trees here are quite impressive…
After a while, I got tired of the paths, and we took a quite steep off-trail route back down to Skeide.
It was a bad weather week. But hey, I’m not complaining. At least, February was just fab!
Trip statistics: 6,2km, 470 vertical meters, 1h:35m
