2025 Week 35

One of the best weeks this year!

Index

Date	Peak	Height	PF	Location	WCP/FP	MAP
25.08.25	Eidskyrkja	1462m	1037m	Volda, Norway	WCP	MAP
26.08.25	Kjerringa	1132m	322m	Ørsta, Norway	FP	MAP
27.08.25	Kalvedalsegga	1234m	50m	Ørsta, Norway	–	MAP
28.08.25	Grøsfortinden	939m	39m	Ørsta, Norway	WCP	MAP
28.08.25	Grøthornet	1046m	558m	Ørsta, Norway	WCP	MAP
29.08.25	Helgehornet	623m	545m	Volda, Norway	WCP	MAP
30.08.25	Vardane, Sula	776m	776m	Sula, M&R, Norway	WCP	MAP
30.08.25	Grøthornet	650m	37m	Sula, M&R, Norway	WCP	MAP
31.08.25	Around Gurskøya	–	–	Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway	–	MAP
31.08.25	Gjøna	531m	163m	Sande, Norway	WCP	MAP

Eidskyrkja (1482m), Aug 25 2025

Monday: This hike is featured on a separate post…

Kjerringa (1132m), Aug 26 2025

Tuesday: This hike is featured on a separate post…

Kalvedalsegga (1234m), Aug 27 2025

Wednesday: This hike is featured on a separate post…

Grøsfortinden (939m), Grøthornet (1046m), Aug 28 2025

Thursday: This hike is featured on a separate post…

Helgehornet (623m), Aug 29 2025

Friday: My energy level after work was rock bottom. I had to rest for half an hour. Maybe it was because the weather wasn’t as it had been in the past few days. Rain showers were coming and going.

I decided that I wanted to take it slow and easy today and drove to Sollidalen to hike across Helgehornet. The parking lot was empty. It seemed I had the mountain all to myself.

The weather was not too bad, but I felt raindrops on my way up the ridge.

Just as I was heading for my favorite viewpoint, I heard gunfire at the shooting range (at the trailhead). Sigh…

I went up to the top and the hike was basically ruined because of all the gunfire.

I did my usual round-trip hike and was sort of glad that Karma wasn’t here. She would have been so scared with all this shooting going on.

It was nice to have an easy day on the trail. The weekend would be busier…

Trip statistics: 4,9km, 400 vertical meters, 1h:14m

Across Vardane (777m) on Sula – on bike, Aug 30 2025

Saturday: I had been thinking about taking the bike across Vardane on Sula island for quite a while and today I decided to take the trip.

I headed out from Mausvåg, along the forest road to Rollonhytta.

There were lots of hikers going up the road and I was a bit surprised that I was passing them. The biking was hard.

3,6km later, I arrived at Rollonhytta and decided to rest for a few minutes. I had a nice chat with a guy (originally from Lofoten) and he told me that he doesn’t see regular bikes up here very often. While I support the arrival of E-bikes, I couldn’t have claimed vertical meters for my activity log on an E-bike.

I couldn’t bike as much I had hoped for, on the way to the foot of the mountain. But it was OK, pushing the bike wasn’t hard, the weather was nice, and I had all day…

Pushing the bike up the steepest part was hard work. This section was quite rocky, and I had to lift and maneuver the bike a lot.

As I was passing Rundehornet, the terrain was no longer steep, and I was able to bike to the top.

The guy from Lofoten arrived shortly after. He seemed impressed about my pace up the mountain – with the bike.

The main ascent was over. Now I looked forward to the downhill. But first, I would bike over to Grøthornet (652m).

I had to get off the bike in the very steepest hill, but only for a few minutes. Then I was able to bike all the way up to Grøthornet.

I chatted with 3 girls, about to leave. They wondered if the bike survived this terrain. I could only reply that I certainly hoped so. But, the day after, I heard ugly sounds from the crankset…

The upper part of Grøthornet is very rocky, but once the downhill begins, it’s bikeable.

I could see a lot of people down at Vonhytta and when I got there, they told me that “Vardane opp” happened today. As such, I should expect to meet a lot of people, and later on – the runners.

I had been looking forward to “blast” down the mountain road, but with so many people on the road, I just had to take it very easy.

Even when there were no more people on the road, I still had to take it easy, as I didn’t know when I would meet the competition group.

After a little while, the leading guy passed me. He looked fit and told me to be aware of others.

The rest of the runners looked very tired (it’s a brutal road) so my guess is that the leading guy was still leading when he reached the top.

From Langevåg stadion, I followed the road and trail on the south side of lake Vassetvatnet. That was nice. Eventually, I reached car roads.

I followed side roads until I got to lake Klingrevatnet, and I should have kept on going. But I noticed a forest trail, signposted “Mauseidvågen”. I was not sure if “Mauseidvågen” was the place I started from, but I decided to find out.

It didn’t take long before I realized that this was a bad idea. These forest paths were not really suited for biking.

The path took me to lake Gjølvatnet. I had been here before. It’s a nice place.

Then I came to a fork, signposted “Rørstadmarka” and went in that direction. Biking was still very cumbersome, and I was very happy when I finally reached asphalt road near the school.

Then I followed side roads back to my starting point. Even with hard work and cumbersome forest trails, I really enjoyed this round trip. I don’t think I will be doing it a second time, though…

Trip statistics: 21km on bike, 1000 vertical meters, 3h:45m

“Gurskøya rundt”, Aug 31 2025

Sunday: Today, I decided to participate in the annual event “Gurskøya rundt”. The idea is to bike around Gurskøya island and gather afterwards for food and social stuff. I’ve never been a huge fan of “social stuff”, but here I could just leave when I wanted to, and no one would miss me.

I biked from home to Leikong, where registration took place. NOK 100, – for adults.

I didn’t expect to meet anyone I knew, but then I met Bjørn and Mariann. That was nice.

They would be biking with their grandchildren, so I didn’t expect to see them again on the trip…

Ideally, I should start late, as I would find great motivation in passing others. But the forecast promised rain later on, and I preferred to be back before the rain sat in.

The route started with a 200 vertical meter climb to the top of Leikongeidet. I biked as hard as I could.

It was big fun passing people on E-bikes. They probably didn’t have a need to push it to the max, but it was still a great satisfaction nevertheless.

The conditions were good. The asphalt was dry, and the wind was not too bad. I was cruising down to Skogevatnet in 55-57km/h. On a trip like this, I wish I had a bike better suited for asphalt. The tyres are quite big, and I lose a lot of speed.

By the time I reached Gjøneset, it was quite clear that I had no one ahead of me. I had to find other motivation. As the biking was going quite well, I hoped that I would make the round in less than 2 hours. That was now my primary goal.

The idea of borrowing my buddy Morten’s bike, is now very tempting. How fast could I get around the island on a bike more fit for the purpose?

I kept on pushing and was happy to arrive back at the starting point. I was very curious about the time, and the GPS said 1h:53m. That was OK in my book.

In the next minutes, other bikers came in. They all had road bikes (carbon and everything) and they looked fit. But none of them had biked faster than me.

I really don’t have any reason to brag. If the round had been flat and not 500 vertical meters, I wouldn’t stand a chance. But I have very strong legs. It’s an unintended side effect of hiking 200,000 vertical meters on an annual basis. I killed them in every uphill climb.

I decided to hang around for a bit and started to talk to people I didn’t know. That was quite nice, actually. Maybe I will try that again one day…

After a while, I biked home and grabbed something to eat.

Trip statistics: 57,4km on bike, 620 vertical meters, 3h:45m (total time away from home)

Gjøna (531m), Aug 31 2025

Sunday: To be completely honest, I wasn’t very tired after the non-stop 47,1km bike ride around the island. I was way more bored than tired.

I went back home, grabbed some lunch, then drove to Gjerdsvika to hike Gjøna.

The first 50 vertical meters were brutal. I quickly got less cocky. But it was only the acid that was the problem. I was still not tired, and once my legs agreed to play ball, I had a good walk up the mountain.

I actually considered going across Saursegga as well, but none of the subsequent routes, forming a round-trip hike, were tempting.

I decided to be quite happy about a hike up and down the mountain.

I wasn’t SO happy about the 61 minutes total time. I need to shave off two minutes on my next hike. That should be possible, if I just don’t do almost 60km of biking before the hike…

Trip statistics: 3,5km, 520 vertical meters, 1h:01m