Summer vacation, day 12
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 24.07.25 | Høgnakken (attempt) | 1045m | 847m | Gildeskål, Norway | – | MAP |
Continued from summer vacation, day 11…
Thursday: The time had come for giving Høgnakken a go. I was both excited and a bit anxious. I did not particularly like what I saw, when I zoomed in the upper part, from Høgstjerna. But maybe it would get easier when I got up there.
Anne drove me to the beginning of the closed road (Skarveien) along lake Storvikvatnet. I got on my bike and biked the 2km to my planned starting point – near Øyjorda.
I was mentally prepared for a class 5 bushwack up the forest.
It was indeed agonizing, but not so bad as I had feared. I had pictured I would be wrestling with trees, but for the most part, I found openings.
Some of those openings were a bit steep, but doable.
Taking on a hill like this, in this temperature, is just crazy.
I was quite happy when I got above the forest and had Nakkdalen in clear view.
Sheep were cooling down on the snow, and I made sure to keep some distance between us. I didn’t want them to leave their comfortable place on the snow.
The hillside below the high ridge was a bit steep, but it wasn’t difficult to find a good route.
The mountain above me looked like a monster.
I went below the snow on the below picture, went up a short couloir, and had to make a decision on where to go next. I know 3 people who have gone up this route, all more seasoned scramblers and climbers than I am. But I hoped I stood a chance.
Then I decided to go up the couloir with a little bit of snow left. Going up wasn’t difficult, but when I realized that this wasn’t the best route, I had big problems going back down.
I definitely had wrong shoes for this hike. As my current La Sportiva Ultra Raptor were worn out, I purchased a pair of Salmon Super Cross 4 in Brønnøysund (they didn’t have La Sportiva). They felt stiff enough when I tried them on, but they didn’t work well in this steep hill.
Fortunately, I had brought an ice-axe, and little by little I descended back down. The real problem here was that if I slid, I would fall off the mountain. There was no natural protection in the terrain.
That shook me up a little, but I started to explore routes further to the right. As I didn’t feel my shoes had any grip at all, I followed the easiest terrain possible.
After a bit of scrambling on rock, I was perhaps 2 meters from a distinct couloir that I was 100% sure was the way ahead. But in order to get into that couloir, I would have to climb sideways without any solid handholds.
I went down a little, and then up again. If I could just find something to firmly hold on to, I would be able to advance. But I gave up. The risk of falling was too high.
Later, I learned that one of my friends had gone up a small gully just a few meters left from where I was scrambling. For some reason, I never considered that route. Whether it was too scary or I didn’t feel comfortable moving upwards in that direction, I don’t know.
I went down to the VLF-station (military). I had seen a guy working down there, but he wasn’t around when I got there. I was thinking maybe he could give me a hint about where to go.
I looked at the ridge route, but only for a few seconds. That didn’t seem to be a doable route.
I officially gave up and started thinking about trying again from the other side, but not during this vacation.
I didn’t enjoy the nice views as much as I would have, had I reached the top…
It was time to get back home and I sat course for the forest. In the beginning, I tried to follow my ascent route on my GPS app, but halfway down, I just gave up and hiked wherever it seemed to make sense. I was never far away from my ascent route, though.
Back down, I biked down to Storvika, where Anne and Karma would be awaiting. The bike trip down was quite fun.
By the time I got to Storvika, our friends Marte and Trygve (whom we visited in Inndyr the day before) came over for a late lunch. We took a swim in the bay before moving over to our rented house. It was too hot to sit on the terrace.
A bit later, we could – barely – enjoy coffee on the terrace. I had enough of the heatwave and dreamt back to 17-18° C.
Afterwards, the girls wanted to go snorkeling. Trygve and I joined them.
Anne was very happy about finding slab rock, from where we could jump in…
While the girls were snorkeling…
…Trygve and I took a swim with our heads mostly above water.
We didn’t let Karma swim, because it could be difficult to get her back up. But she was almost still wet from the swim in Storvika, a bit earlier.
I got a chance to snorkel a bit too. The kelp forest was nice to look at, below the water.
The evening temperature was a tad more bearable, so we could truly enjoy this wonderful evening.
Eventually, it was time to call it a day.
In the evening, Karma behaved weirdly. She seemed to seek places with shade. Even inside the house. We wondered if she had gotten a sunburn on her eyes or something. I decided to call my veterinarian office the next day.
Høgnakken Trip statistics: 5,2km on foot, 7,9km on bike, 1095 vertical meters, 4h:31m
