A touch of winter…
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 13.10.25 | Snaueggi/ Bjørnstigfjellet | 770m | 247m | Sogndal, Norway | – | MAP |
| 14.10.25 | Stedjeåsen | 625m | 123m | Sogndal, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 16.10.25 | Skolma | 636m | 483m | Hareid/ Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 17.10.25 | Instehornet | 653m | 200m | Volda, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 18.10.25 | Hareidlandet biking | 50m | 0m | Hareid, Norway | – | MAP |
| 19.10.25 | Around Gurskøya | – | – | Herøy/Sande, M&R, Norway | – | MAP |
| 19.10.25 | Røddalshorn | 563m | 100m | Sande, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Snaueggi / Bjørnstigfjellet (770m), Oct 13 2025
Monday: Another Monday, another week. I was still in Sogndal and wondered how I could get a good start to the week. The fog hung low, but at least it wasn’t raining.
As I haven’t been to Snaueggi since 2010 (and that also my first visit) I decided it was high time I did a revisit. Now that there are mountain service roads “all over the place”, including up to Snaueggi, I decided to go for a bike trip from Fimreite. I figured 800 vertical meters would count as a good start to the week.
It didn’t take long before I entered the fog. But I actually enjoyed it, as I didn’t have to see how “endless” the mountain road was…
I was feeling OK, despite taking a flu vaccine earlier in the day. My arm was hurting a bit, like it always does after the injection.
For some reason, I had thought that when I got to the top of the hill (the pass between Snaueggi and Dueskard), then I would have easier terrain towards Snaueggi. But it turned out that I had still 250 vertical meters to climb. It was slightly brutal.
But finally, after 1h:16m and 8,4km, I could leave the bike and walk the short distance up to the top. I am not counting those few meters as hiking…
To my surprise, I got some sunshine, some blue sky and some views before the fog came upon me again. But those seconds were highly appreciated!
I walked around a little bit, hoping the views would return but they didn’t. So, I went back to the bike.
The 8,4km down to the car took 18 minutes. I didn’t want to risk anything on this curvy road with various types of gravel (some quite big) and potential traffic (construction). My vision was also a bit blurred, from the all the dirt that the wheels were throwing in my face.
Back at the car, I noticed an odd-looking bird. Was it a duck? Was it a goose? When I got home, I found that this was most likely a Muscovy Duck.
This bird doesn’t natively belong in this country. It was looking for food just a couple of meters away from me, and while it probably was keeping control of the distance between us, it didn’t seem shy at all.
Trip statistics: 17,4km on bike, 800 vertical meters, 1h:44m
Stedjeåsen (624m), Oct 14 2025
Tuesday: The fog hung low today as well, and while I all day had thought I would end up biking after work, in the end – I lost the inspiration. I was a bit tired after a long day and decided to revisit Stedjeåsen, to see if a) they had started cleaning up the trail after the storm and b) if not – could I find a route that didn’t including climbing across fallen trees?
I decided to do the route that begins by the gate. Maybe the storm hadn’t hit so hard down here?
The storm had definitely hit this far down, but to my surprise – the cleanup was in progress. I was surprised because this is NOT the normal route up the forest.
I appreciated the work being done here. It wasn’t just a matter of cutting through the trees. The logs had to be removed as well, and I am confident they were heavy.
After a while, the cleanup squad had stopped, and I had to look for an alternative route up.
Eventually, I joined the regular trail near “Dagsturhytta”.
More good work had been done here.
When I got to the juniper forest – the main centre of the havoc, it was just weird to see that the well-worn trail was nowhere to be seen, because of the “debris”.
I tried to sneak my way around the devastation and I got away with it for a little while.
But in the end, I ended up in trouble.
Getting out of this mess was not fun at all.
But finally, I got onto the southernmost of the regular trails and had an easy hike up to the foggy top. Only one person had signed the visitor’s register after out visit on Saturday. The low number of visitors was totally understandable!
Heading down, I was now on my way to the worst section, but before I got there, I turned right and crossed the greenish ridge.
I ended up in really steep terrain but managed to find my way down. And now I was on the northernmost of the regular trails. But the remaining problems weren’t so hard to bypass.
One thing is for certain – mother nature does what she wants…
Returning to Anne’s place, I could see the fog lifting. That’s always nice, but this was my last full day in Sogndal for now, so the only sunny hike I got during my stay was Sunday’s hike.
Trip statistics: 7,2km, 590 vertical meters, 2h:11m
Sogndal – Sunnmøre, Oct 15 2025
Wednesday: I was returning to Sunnmøre after some days in Sogndal. Plan A was to bike and hike Skavegga on Utvikfjellet, but because of a convoy through Frudalstunnelen, I didn’t have the time I felt I needed, if I were to avoid the convoy at Selvågtunnelen – close to home. And besides – it was raining and the mountains fogged in.
Plan B was to hike Huldrehornet when I got home, but I was met by a wall of rain. Eventually, I decided to skip hiking and log onto work once I got back home. Stuff needed my attention.
Skolma (636m), Oct 16 2025
Thursday: The weather forecast for the afternoon was rain! But the weather was OK when I left home. I decided to drive to Flø and hike Skolma. Naturally, I would bike the 1,9km from the parking to the point where the path starts climbing.
I realized that I would probably not return dry…
I got two rain showers during my bike trip, and the weather looked overall gloomy.
I had brought my Canon, but I was wondering if the only color I would see, would be grey.
On my way up the mountain, it was snowing lightly.
56 minutes after I started hiking, I reached the top.
Now, I was VERY happy that I had brought the Canon. Stuff was going on up in the sky!
I could see a fresh layer of snow on Signalhornet. I had gotten the message already. I had booked a slot for changing my tyres next Wednesday.
I then decided to get off the mountain while I was still fairly dry.
That didn’t last long. I got a proper rain shower on my way down.
I was a bit disappointed about the rainbows. I feel they could have shone a bit more…
But I got a very nice light when I was on the bike, back to the car. This is what I am talking about!
Trip statistics: 6,8km on foot, 3,8km on bike, 650 vertical meters, 2h:05m
Rotsethornet (649m), Instehornet (653m), Oct 17 2025
Friday: I was in this work bubble all day and never looked out the window. But I noticed that the weather seemed quite nice and so I decided to hike Saudehornet (1303m) in Ørsta. I expected that there might be some fresh snow on top, but that would not be a problem.
To my big surprise, I saw snow > 500m on Blåtind (697m) on Hareidlandet and then I quickly realized that a mountain almost twice as high would have a LOT of snow. I had to come up with a new plan.
As I was wearing trail running shoes and thin socks, I could not be walking around in snow “forever” and decided to do the “classic” round across Rotsethornet and Instehornet. Hopefully, there was not a whole lot of snow up there and that would be able to follow the path from Rotsethornet.
At least, the steepest part would not involve snow. That was my main concern.
The forest path was wet and extremely slippery. In the steepest part, I met Oddbjørn from Nordfjordeid. We had common friends (Ove and Torleif) and we had a nice chat.
It wasn’t quite clear how the weather would stay, but I hoped I avoided a snow shower on the mountain.
As I was taking pictures, a guy came flying by – in an insane speed. It looked fun…
Then – back to the slippery path.
On top of Rotsethornet, I caught 3 young dudes red-handed in filming themselves nude with a drone. I’m not sure what I disliked the most – the view, the noise or their silly laughter.
I get it though. They had fun with it. I’ve promised myself to never become a grumpy, old man. It’s just that I looked forward to taking a lot of pictures this time, as when I was up here the last time, the top was occupied by a bunch of young people.
All in all, I’m happy that people do the hike, and I’ll find another day for taking pictures in peace.
Then it was time to move on towards Instehornet.
The path was quite easy to follow. If there had been 5-10cm more snow, this hike would have taken much longer time.
It had been a nice hike so far, but I couldn’t get rid of the silly laughter from the young dudes. This mountain carries sound a long way…
I wondered how high you weed need to go for skiing…
After visiting Instehornet, I was more than ready to get below the snow.
Litledalen valley was in the shade and daylight was fading fast. The path was insanely slippery, and I felt I pulled off a masterclass in keeping the balance while maintaining a good pace.
Finally, I was down by lake Rotevatnet and could get on the bike to finish off the final 2,1km back to the car.
I made a mental note that without a headlamp – better be down from the mountain by 6:30pm. And when it’s time to adjust the clock, the remaining daylight will be even more scarce…
Trip statistics: 6,3km on foot, 2,1km on bike, 670 vertical meters, 2h:03m
Hareidlandet biking, Oct 18 2025
Saturday: Today, I felt for a longer bike trip. I drove to Garneskrysset with a specific route in mind. This was a route I had discussed with my friend Morten, a few days earlier. But, to my despair, I couldn’t fill air in my rear tyre. I had to get professional help and texted Morten. He was home.
When I got to Morten’s place, the tyre was OK. He used his compressor to fill up the tyre. I didn’t understand why the valve was working now and not 10 minutes earlier. He said this could happen with tyres without inner tubes. I thanked him, did a few penalty push-ups and returned to Garneskrysset.
It wasn’t a perfect day for biking. There were light rain showers roaming around, it was chilly (5 °C) and it was windy. But I still wanted to bike. I put on a podcast and started biking.
I went up Ringstaddalen and when I got to the Ramnefjellet trailhead, I followed the hiking path along lake Hammarstøylsvatnet. It’s bikeable until you close in on the eastern end of the lake.
I got good speed down to the road by Snipsøyrvatnet, turned right and headed for the Almekleiva pass.
I hadn’t done this route in 5 years, and it was nice to be back.
I biked towards Engaskaret, from where I chose to follow the path towards Åsen – instead of going through the tunnel. It was a bit cumbersome, but it was nice to be walking a little. My toes were getting a bit cold.
After a while, the trail got bikeable, and I enjoyed myself.
In the commotion with the tyre, I forgot to bring my drinking bottle. I was now quite thirsty. I decided to stop by the store in Hjørungavåg and get some chocolate milk.
From Hjørungavåg, I biked to Hareid and got onto the Rotarystien path – a path sponsored by the Rotary club.
I like this route. So does many others. Every time I passed hikers, I passed them very slowly and most of them nodded, as to say “thanks for slowing down”
I knew all parts of this route from earlier hikes and bike trips, but I had never done this particular round. I enjoyed it a lot!
When I got back to the main road, I saw runners. “Snipsøyrvatnet rundt” was happening today and it was a little awkward to cross the finishing line along with the runners. People were staring at me. But that’s OK. I am used to being the oddball.
I had headwind all the way up to Eidet. I was down in Ulsteinvik a few minutes later and could begin with the final leg back to Garneskrysset. For the first time, I biked through the small tunnel, hoping to see the “Bicyclist in tunnel!” lighting up on the other side, but the digital board was just dark. Disappointing…
I wasn’t particularly tired, but it was nice to get back to Garneskrysset and the car. I wish the round would have been 50km, but 500 meters short is close enough…
Trip statistics: 45,5km on bike, 915 vertical meters, 3h:53m
Røddalshorn (563m) + biking around Gurskøya, Oct 19 2025
Sunday: As soon as I woke up, I knew this would be another biking day. I just didn’t have any inspiration for hiking. It’s probably to do with the amount of snow in the mountains now. I don’t want to spend a Sunday on a lower mountain that I could do after work, so it had to be biking.
I “stacked up” the podcasts and left home after breakfast.
As I mainly work from my home office, there’s no good time to listen to podcasts anymore. So, I enjoyed allocating some hours for it.
When I got to Leikongeidet, I decided to hike Røddalshorn before continuing around the island.
Not because I wanted to hike, but because I just couldn’t let a weekend go by without having been to a top…
Besides, my bum was a bit sore after yesterday’s bike trip, so it was a welcomed break from sitting…
The weather was about the same as the day before, minus the light rain. It was windy today also, something I would feel in a different way when I got back on the bike.
On my way down to lake Skogevatnet, I reached 58km/h. It was a struggle to keep the bike straight.
I had a good lap passing Haugsbygda. The wind was favourable.
But when I got to Gjøneset, I met a wall of wind. The leg to Gjerdsvika was hard.
It is impossible to understand the wind patterns on this island, so the rest of the trip was a mix of headwinds and tailwinds and impossible to explain.
When I got to Tjørvåg, I was “good” when it came to biking. I looked forward to returning home.
In the afternoon, Anne called. She had gone to Crete the day before, along with 8 Park Ranger colleagues. I guess they call themselves Nature Inspectors…
They had walked through the Samara gorge and gotten a good start to their week’s stay. I was only slightly envious…
Trip statistics: 48,8km on bike, 3,6km on foot, 930 vertical meters, 3h:46m
