Rainy week, local tops and a lot of biking
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 18.08.25 | Gyrinakken | 365m | 157m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 19.08.25 | Storebroren | 620m | 177m | Hareid/Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 20.08.25 | Aksla | 188m | 188m | Ålesund, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 20.08.25 | Skafjellet | 573m | 82m | Hareid, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 21.08.25 | Sollia | 661m | 661m | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 22.08.25 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 23.08.25 | Røyrafjellet | 123m | 100m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 24.08.25 | Nonshornet | 289m | 289m | Herøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Gyrinakken (365m), Aug 18 2025
Monday: My last day in Sogndal for now. Anne went to Stryn for work and would spend the night there. I finished my working day in Sogndal before driving home.
My plan was to bike Årheimsfjellet (1007m) after work. But as I followed the Loen Skylift webcam during the day, the fog only grew thicker and thicker. I was sort of OK with biking in fog, but then I remembered the Selvåg tunnel closure at 8pm and the following convoys. In the end, I decided to just drive home and visit a local top.
3,5 hours after leaving Sogndal, I arrived at my house on Gurskøy. I just moved my bags into the house, and then I took the bike for a trip to the Gyrinakken trailhead. It was raining a little bit along Djupvikvatnet, but then it stopped just as quickly as it began.
There are two routes to the trailhead. I took the bumpy forest trail. The other route is better, but the plan was to come down that way.
After 8,9km on bike, I proceeded on foot and hiked to the top of Gyrinakken.
I felt a little sad. One thing was to go hiking without my dear Karma. Another thing was that I’ve been to all these local mountains hundreds of times. It gets a little boring in the long run. I loved my week in Sogndal. Although I’m running into the same problem there, there are far more opportunities, and especially for biking.
But there is no point in complaining. I should be thrilled about just being able to do what I do.
I hiked back down and then I decided to bike back home via “Lysløypa” up to Leikongeidet. That would give me some additional vertical meters.
I had a good run down Leikongbakken and reached 54km/h. I’m a chicken when it comes to speed, so that is more than fast enough for me.
Trip statistics: 18,6km on bike, 2km on foot, 570 vertical meters, 1h:38m
Storebroren (620m), Aug 19 2025
Tuesday: After work, I was dog tired. A nap didn’t help. I just wanted to sleep for the rest of the evening. But that didn’t feel like the right option, so I decided to just go for a bike trip that could eventually get me up to Storebroren (on Hareidlandet island). If I was too tired, it would just be a short bike trip. At least I would have tried.
I started out from Varleitet, and the climb up to Skarpeidet was incredibly hard. I was very happy when I reached the top of the hill.
Next, was a fairly easy 2km leg, to the bottom of the road leading up to lake Mosvatnet.
The climb to Mosvatnet wasn’t that hard, as I was all warmed up by now. When I finally reached the lake, I had to figure out what route I should follow.
I decided to do something I’ve never done here before. I biked along the lake. It was humpy and bumpy, but it was possible to bike.
When biking got too cumbersome, I left the bike. The top was now just a 1,3km hike away.
Finally, I reached the top of Storebroren. That felt like a huge win, compared to how I felt after my nap.
I was happy about the weather too. It was raining a little on my way up from Varleitet, but it stopped before I got wet.
All in all – happy!
I returned to the bike, took the same humpy route back to the gravel road and looked forward to a long, nice descent.
When I got to the Skarpeidet hill, I decided to continue down “Mørdarbakken” to Bugarden and return to Varleitet via roads.
Trip statistics: 16,4km on bike, 2,4km on foot, 665 vertical meters, 2h:12m
Aksla (188m), Aug 20 2025
Wednesday: Ålesund day. After losing Karma, I had a bag full of medicines, stuff for wound care, 12kg of dog food, etc. I wanted to my Vet to have all this. Maybe some of it would be useful to have in the office. In any case, this was the proper place to deposit all the medicine, rather than the garbage bin.
While waiting for the Vet’s office to open, I did a short hike to Rundskue – the high point on Aksla. I used to take Karma up there every so often but realized I hadn’t been up there in 2025.
It was raining lightly, but it was a very short hike. I had planned a mountain hike (or bike trip) after work, so this was just a “bonus”.
Trip statistics: 1km, 50 vertical meters, 0h:10m
Skafjellet (573m), Aug 20 2025
Wednesday: The plan was to do a bike-and-hike trip in the Ålesund region after work. But it started to rain, and I lost interest in the idea. Instead, I took the ferry back to Hareidlandet – hoping it didn’t rain there.
It didn’t and so I decided to bike up Skafjellet. The first hill is a monster hill, and I don’t think I’ll ever be able to bike it all the way. But if I did, there is another (albeit shorter) steep hill around the next turn.
After these two hills, the terrain gets a little more friendly and I biked up to the end of the tractor road (430m).
From here, I pushed the bike up to the meadow before top. I biked the final meters to the top.
I looked forward to the descent. The mountain part is pure fun, although it’s quite bumpy. The tractor road – well it’s a tractor road. A bit bumpy too.
And in the end, I was able to deposit another 500 vertical meters into my “banking account”…
Trip statistics: 6,6km on bike, 500 vertical meters, 1h:17m
Sollia (661m), Aug 21 2025
Thursday: Of course, it had to start raining once my working day was over. But it was only raining lightly and so I decided to go to Sollia, but on bike from Moltu and up to lake Mørkevatnet (4,4km, 300 vertical meters)
I only brought an extra jacket – one that was recognized as Gore-Tex back in 2017. Now, it was just another layer of clothing.
It didn’t rain when I headed out from Moltu, but 10 minutes later, I got my first rain shower on this trip.
The rain soon passed, and I figured if the rain showers were this short, then getting up to Sollia shouldn’t be a problem.
The weather was still holding up when I got to lake Mørkevatnet. I left my bike and proceeded on foot.
The second shower came when I was halfway up the mountain. I tried to be positive about it. If it had to rain, then now was the right time, and not when I got high on the mountain.
This shower lasted much longer than the previous, but when I was taking on the last ridge, it stopped raining.
I even got a little bit of views from the top! It was nice to have that extra layer of clothing!
When I headed back down, I said thought if there must be another rain shower, I want it to be where it was raining on my way up. Not here, and not when I return to the bike. And sure enough, the 3rd shower came exactly where I “wanted it”.
When I got to the bike, it had stopped raining, and I had a fairly smooth ride back to Moltu.
Trip statistics: 4,6km on bike, 680 vertical meters, 1h:53m
Huldrehornet (271m), Aug 9 2025
Friday: I had all sorts of plans for this afternoon, but they all got cancelled when the rain wouldn’t let up. I then planned to bike from home, up to Leikongeidet and hike Røddalshorn. Maybe I got lucky with the rain showers.
While preparing for the trip, the sun was shining. When I opened the front door, it was pouring down. I waited until it was just raining (not pouring) and decided that Huldrehornet was all I was going for today.
I biked to the trailhead at Djupvikvatnet, and dripping wet, I headed up the forest. I was somewhat sheltered from the worst rain in the forest.
As expected, it stopped raining before I got out of the forest, and I could enjoy the summit ridge in OK weather.
I wanted to a little more biking, just for the extra vertical meters, but realized that I would probably get another rain shower along the way.
After returning to the bike, I biked down to Kjeldsund (and then some). When I felt the first drops of rain, I headed back.
I was lucky. It didn’t start pouring down until I got home. The good news was that Anne had just arrived. It was raining so hard that she skipped bringing her stuff in from the car.
We had a nice evening. I served a nice meal, we watched a good movie and had enjoyed some unhealthy snacks. Anne had to get used to the fact that she was leaving a place with a good forecast for the weekend, for a place with a not-so-good forecast. The things one does for love…
Trip statistics: 10km on bike, 2,3km on foot, 420 vertical meters, 1h:19m
Røyrafjellet (123m), Aug 23 2025
Saturday: Crap! Sick again. Bummer. After breakfast, I was able to drive Anne to Ulsteinvik for some shopping, but afterwards, I just had to hit the bed again, for hours.
Anne woke me up in the afternoon and I crawled out of bed. A bit later, Anne said she wanted to get some fresh air and planned to hike Rambjøra. I figured a walk would only do me good and proposed we should go to Røyrafjellet on Dimnøya instead, as I hadn’t been there in 2025.
We hoped we could avoid the rain showers. We drove through rain on Dimnøya, but we had passed the shower when we reached the trailhead. It’s a short and easy hike up the slabs.
Anne had forgotten that the first top isn’t the high point.
It wasn’t much of a hike, but better than nothing.
Near the trailhead, I asked Anne if she wanted to try my bike on the slabs. She was a bit hesitant, as she’s never done much trail biking before. But she gave it a go.
Very focused, she survived. But I don’t think she will be rushing to the store and buy a terrain bike, any time soon.
Anne made us a nice dinner in the evening. I didn’t get worse and managed to stay up until bedtime.
Trip statistics: 2,7km, 170 vertical meters, 0h:54m
Nonshornet (289m), Aug 24 2025
Sunday: This hike is featured on a separate post…
