What an incredibly nice ski-trip!
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 16.03.25 | Dyrhovden | 948m | 108m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 16.03.25 | Helleberget | 988m | 108m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Saturday: In the morning, Anne went down for the usual Sunday morning swim in Sogndalsfjøra. And like always, I drove down to pick her up.
There were lots of people today. Water temperature: 4 deg. C.
After breakfast, we drove up to Hodlekve for cross-country skiing. Plan A was to ski to Dyrhovden, but I hoped that we would also be able to include Helleberget upon our route. If the snow was too soft for Karma, then Helleberget would be plan A.
Fortunately, the snow carried Karma’s weight, and this looked like it would be a gorgeous day.
Karma was all over the place, and only occasionally in the tracks. We were a bit worried that she would run out of steam halfway to Dyrhovden.
We were about to pass Helleberget on the east side when Anne said she would replace the skins with wax. I figured she could have thought of that before we headed out and I didn’t bother waiting.
But eventually, I had to…
Next, we had to cross Bollesteinshamrane, and we just skied without checking the map. How complicated could it get?
On our way to Bollesteinshamrane, I called for a shortcut. I tried to steer Karma up and she responded with pushing herself backwards and we both fell. But eventually, we got up.
The snow was softer now, but Karma was doing OK.
Finally, we had Dyrhovden in view. We chose to go up on the east side and hopefully – descend on the west side.
This was my 3rd visit to Dyrhovden. It didn’t use to be a mountain with a prominence of 100 meters of more, so I didn’t give it priority. But that changed recently, with new measurements – and Reppanipa fell out of “the list”.
Our first visit was in 2013 when Karma was a puppy. I wonder if she remembers…
Fryd was also here, back then. Karma and Fryd are sisters and for a period of time, we had two dogs.
But things were not working out so great with two dogs, and after ~6 months, we had to find a new home for Fryd. She ended up in a wonderful home!
Back to the present, Anne called for a short break in the lee side, and I stood next to her, patiently waiting for the break to end.
At least I had something nice to rest my eyes on…
It was time for descent, and after some scouting, we found an OK route down. We were a little worried about the avalanche danger, but I didn’t think it was steeper than 30 degrees.
Anne went along on my Helleberget suggestion, although she had skied there a couple of days before I came down. But I wanted the extra vertical meters and why not just keep on skiing on such a nice day?
I didn’t have too much fun in the downhills. I didn’t bother taking the skins off, because I didn’t need the extra speed. I am Bambi on ice on mountain skis if the snow isn’t soft. And today, the snow was challenging – changing all the time.
Karma was still doing OK. This was already a good trip for a 12,5-year-old dog and we still had one more mountain to climb.
Halfway up Helleberget, Karma gave us a status report…
And then we were up!
The descent was nice. The snow was better, but I kept my skins on. There was no point in skiing from Karma anyway.
This was a superb trip. I’m so glad I was able to do this trip before heading to northern Norway the next day.
Trip statistics: 12,7km, 710 vertical meters, 3h:30m
Pictures (Canon EOS RP/Iphone 13 Pro Max) from the trip:
