Another fantastic traverse!
Index
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 25.10.25 | Saudehornet | 1303m | 825m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 25.10.25 | Vardehornet | 1010m | 101m | Ørsta, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Saturday: On the last day with Daylight Saving Time, the weather was gorgeous. I wanted to spend this day with a hike that is special to me – the Saudehornet traverse.
But before I sat course towards Ørsta, I mowed the lawn, I cleaned the car’s summer tyres and the bike. That took a few hours.
This would be my fourth hike to Saudehornet this year, and I was really looking forward to it.
I felt the walk was hard today. My legs didn’t have that punch I had expected from them, and I had to set a pace that I would be able to follow all the way to the top.
A good time for me would be 1h:15m up, but as I had to slow down, I expected that I would need 15 minutes extra. Still, I passed all the hikers I could see in front of me.
It didn’t take long before I had to put the jacket in the rucksack. It was only 8-10 degrees, but it felt much warmer.
The pitch from the river and up to the ridge (1,3km, 400 vertical meters) is always the most brutal for me. Maybe because it’s boring and I can’t wait to get on the ridge. I was still passing hikers. That’s always a huge motivation for me. Can’t help it.
Finally, I reached the point where the mountain just rises to the sky. These vertical meters are objectively the most brutal, but this is the section I enjoyed the most.
Near the top, I stopped to talk to two women who had found a spot sheltered from the cold wind on the mountain. I spent some time petting the dog that they had brought along. I miss Karma – my dear hiking companion for so many years.
I just had to get going and reached the top 1h:27m after heading out. It was OK. I may have felt I had a “bad day” on the trail, but the reality is that I’m insanely privileged to have the health to do this.
With this weather, the views were extra breath-taking today.
I did a round of pictures before deciding to move on.
The soles on my terrain running shoes were worn down and I instructed myself to move with the utmost care. The rock was slippery in the shade and there was snow here and there.
Traversing the ridge is easy (if you don’t consider the exposure) until you get to the knife-edge section in the middle. Coming from Saudehornet, you can pass this section on the right-hand side, but the drop is insane and bypassing the ridge calls for great caution.
I think it’s also possible to pass on the left-hand side, further down. I’ve never done that and so I am not sure.
But today, I would be scrambling the knife-edge ridge and enjoy it. The rock was dry, and the ridge is technically easy. I had a wonderful time.
Past this point, it’s faster to drop below the ridge on the left-hand side and just hike over to the northwest top. But I kept following the ridge crest, realizing I had probably never hiked the crest here before. It was still easy terrain.
On the way down from the northwest top, I met a guy coming up. We talked for a couple of minutes. Based on our conversation about fun routes in the nearby region, I assumed he was a climber. I didn’t ask him directly, but it was rather obvious.
After a 375m descent, I reached the saddle below Vardehornet and started hiking upwards. That was so hard! There was no juice in my legs at all. I had two 10-second stops, which was enough to keep on going. It’s a good thing I don’t need longer time, but I didn’t like the fact that I had to take pauses.
It was nice to be back on Vardehornet. I haven’t been up there since 2018, mainly because the top didn’t have 100m prominence. But after the latest measurements, the prominence is now 101m! So maybe there will not be 7 years until I return!
I moved on towards Nivane but decided not to stop by the high point. The prominence is only 45m and I just wanted to get back down.
My legs were tired, and I had an 800+ vertical meter descent ahead of me. I just had to grind my teeth and get going.
All the way down the mountain, I had been looking forward to getting down on the service road. But that road is quite steep also and it was more painful following the road down, than coming down the mountain trail.
But eventually, I reached the car. I figured I had earned a hot-dog down at CircleK before driving back home.
Trip statistics: 10km, 1335 vertical meters, 3h:43m
