My 2nd week in Brønnøysund
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 12.01.26 | Babylonåsen | 30m | 27m | Brønnøy, Norway | – | MAP |
| 13.01.26 | Tilremshatten | 318m | 262m | Brønnøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 14.01.26 | Tilremshatten | 318m | 262m | Brønnøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 15.01.26 | Mosaksla | 527m | 449m | Brønnøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 16.01.26 | Gåsheituva | 245m | 134m | Brønnøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 16.01.26 | Hjortheia | 196m | 54m | Brønnøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 16.01.26 | Skardsåsen | 70m | 4m | Brønnøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 17.01.26 | Skardsåsen | 70m | 4m | Brønnøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 17.01.26 | Tilremshatten | 318m | 262m | Brønnøy, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 18.01.26 | Huldrehornet | 271m | 113m | Herøy, M&R, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Babylonåsen (30m) and 7 other humps in Brønnøysund, Jan 12 2026
Monday: The wind was just terrible. 25-26 m/s in the gusts. Imagine that with 40cm of fresh powder snow. Can’t see anything from the spindrift and then you get whipped in the face. I would not go mountain hiking today, so what else could I do?
Mom mentioned the day before, 7 small tops in Brønnøysund. That sounded like fun. I hadn’t been to any of them. But I decided to make my own list – 8 tops exceeding 20m elevation on the Flatås peninsula (the centre of Brønnøysund)
This project was just weird enough for my taste and I looked forward to getting going. I started from Brønnøysund stadion and sat course for Høgåsen. To ignore the wind, I put on my headphones and enjoyed music.
I could see Trælneshatten across the fjord and while I probably could have gone hiking, I don’t think it would have been an enjoyable affair.
Høgåsen (south top – 23m) was a playground. Then I went over to the north top (24m), which wasn’t exciting at all.
Then I went over to Kjerkhågen (23m) – the “church hill” next to the church.
This was going well. I went down to the sea to take some pictures, but it was impossible to do any long exposure photography in this wind.
The next two tops – Skiphammaren (25m) and Flatåsen (25m) were neighbours in the same (small) forest.
Then I went over to Babylonåsen (30m) – the highest of the tops.
Next, Flaggstanghågjen (“flagpole hill” – 25m) got a visit. Oddly enough, I was the only one out hiking. Go figure.
I was now hiking with the headlamp on. Primarily so the car drivers could see me.
The final top was Lendingåsen (26m).
Then I sat course for my trailhead.
If I only had brought my skis to the north, I could have enjoyed the Svarthopen trail (which mom and I hiked last Saturday) on skis.
Finally, I stopped by the “ski jumping hill” next to Brønnøysund Stadion, but it wasn’t 20m high. So, it doesn’t count…
Counting the vertical meters from this hike took a bit of time. To get the most accurate result, I had to digitize my entire round in hoydedata.no. The result was ~180 vertical meters. A likely number. Feeding the GPS track (from my Norgeskart Friluftsliv app) to a credible online GPX tool, gave me almost 300 vertical meters. Not a likely number. Double-checking with Google Earth gave me 1,5 vertical meters (!!!) and only goes to show that one should never trust the Google Earth’s elevation profile in towns close to sea level…
Trip statistics: 6,3km, 180 vertical meters, 2h:04m
Tilremshatten (318m), Jan 13 2026
Tuesday: The snowfall had left Brønnøysund and the crazy wind had calmed down. Imagine 40cm of fresh snow, followed by a day with wind > 25m/s. Talk about spindrift! Oversimplified, this meant terrain with at least 1m snow and other terrain without snow.
In my lunch break, I drove to the Mosaksla trailhead just to check the conditions. There wasn’t much snow left on the mountain!
After work, I returned to the Mosaksla trailhead, only to find that I risked getting stuck in the parking area. I didn’t want to risk having to call a tow-truck and so I decided to hike Tilremshatten instead.
I came down this route on Saturday, in the snowstorm. But it was dark and I didn’t get any impression of the route because of the snowfall and the wind.
But I had never gone up the mountain from this trailhead before, and I looked forward to it.
The beginning of the route was hard. The snow was deep and the wind-packed snow was like cement, once I got buried in it.
But the upside was that there were lots of parts without any snow, so all in all, this would not get too bad!
I quickly got a good impression of the route. Across a ridge and then straight up!
The ridge was big fun. Coming down here on Saturday, I avoided the ridge crest but today I scrambled across it.
I will definitely do more hikes from Tilrem!
It was still windy, but not too windy. We’re talking gusts, not a high average wind speed. So, I was able to take pictures.
I stopped a number of times to take pictures of Brønnøysund, not knowing how they would turn out.
I also tried to take a picture of the cars coming off the ferry, but it was still too bright to get the picture I wanted (a long line of lights)
Then I got up. It was a delight to go directly up to the high point (318m), rather than arriving at the 315m point, going over to the 318m point and then back again.
It was crystal clear that I would be heading down the same route. I had jogged from Tilrem to Salhus in a snowstorm on Saturday. I had no need to jog the same route in the different direction.
Then it got properly dark. I tried to head back down using my instincts, but they failed me and I ended up on the wrong side of the huge gorge. I needed to check my GPS app and get back on track.
A super-nice hike!
Trip statistics: 3,2km, 335 vertical meters, 1h:35m
Tilremshatten (318m), Jan 14 2026
Wednesday: My plan for the afternoon was to go to Hornsveten and include the “satellite humps” Høgheia, Aunholten and Staulberget. That seemed like a fun project, but then the weather turned worse than I had expected and I changed the plan to – yawn – hike Tilremshatten for the 7th time in 12 days.
When I got to Skardsåsen, that lovely red color was again present in the southwest. It made me curious about what was going on “down there”. Even if it had been cloudy all around, I always saw the sunset in that direction.
Looking north and moving upwards – it was still grey…
I listened to podcasts and enjoyed myself, even if the hike was hard. Not as hard as on Sunday, when I had 40cm of fresh snow all the way to the top. But harder in places, where the wind had shuffled the snow into 1m deep cornices. In other places, there was hardly any snow at all.
From the top, I tried to get a decent picture of a plane landing. But it was quite windy and the picture didn’t turn out exactly how I wanted.
My stay up here is coming to an end soon. I’ve bought a ticket back home for Sunday. Mom is doing better and better and can probably get by on her own for now. If not, I can always come back.
Trip statistics: 8km, 505 vertical meters, 2h:36m
Mosaksla (527m), Jan 15 2026
Thursday: Finally – a different mountain than Tilremshatten! The weather seemed good enough to go for a trip up Mosaksla.
I was afraid to get the car stuck at the trailhead, so I drove to the nearest farm and asked if I could park there. That was OK and they told me that they had helped pulling out a car from the wind-packed snow the day before.
The lower forest part (albeit short) was a nightmare. The snow was deep and just like cement. I was so happy when I got to the handrails, so I could drag myself up.
It was quite windy already when I got to the valley. There wasn’t a single place where I was in shelter from the wind. But it wasn’t that cold, so no problem!
I enjoyed the hike but made a mental note about caution during the descent in the dark. The ice was covered by snow and dangerous.
A bit higher, it was quite windy. I would guess around 15m/s in the gusts, because the wind moved me, but didn’t control me.
It was fun to look at the lights at sea. I guess there is a couple of oil rigs out there.
I got up just as it got dark.
I then tried to find a sheltered spot for taking pictures, but I didn’t find any. I took 6 pictures. 4 were pure crap, the last two were “good enough” but far from how I wanted them to be.
The descent went fine. The upper part has a “line” that one can stick to down to the small pond at 340m. From there, there were “landmarks” that were useful since I could not see much, due to the combination of darkness, headlamp and spindrift from the strong wind.
Trip statistics: 8km, 540 vertical meters, 2h:04m
Gåsheituva (245m), Hjortheia (196m), Jan 16 2026
Friday: After an incredibly busy working day, I went to Gåsheia after work, to hike Gåsheituva. I hadn’t been up there since 2009.
The main reason for going here was that I was encouraged to sign up for Fjelltrimmen 2026 in Brønnøysund. I had already been to 4 of the tops and Gåsheituva was on the list.
I didn’t find the path at first. Probably because there wasn’t any, and so I had to walk next to the ski-track. It was quite strenuous.
When I got to the building at 210m, I had a clear view towards the top, and there was less snow.
It was quite windy, so I had to work hard for the long exposure pictures.
The original plan was to go up here 2-3 times for the vertical meters, but it was just too boring. Instead, I decided to go for Guromannen, just right of centre in the below picture. That top was also on the Fjelltrimmen list.
One place I hadn’t been during my stay, was Ramntinden. I was hoping I could get up there the next day.
Andalshatten is always a majestic sight. Only been there once, but I hope to return there one day.
I went back to the main road, crossed it and followed the path towards Hjortheia. When I got to the Guromannen fork, there were no footprints. To ascend 200 vertical meters in the deep snow was out of the question, and so I settled for Hjortheia. At least, I had a good viewpoint towards Torghatten.
It was just about to turn really dark…
One last picture, and I was off.
Trip statistics: 3,9km, 250 vertical meters, 1h:24m
Skardåsen (70m), Jan 16 2026
Friday: The Gåsheituva – Hjortheia hike had only earned me 250 vertical meters, so I drove to Salhus to hike up and down Skardsåsen a few times. 3 times to be exact. That got me additional 205 vertical meters. Not quite 500 in total, but it was OK. I had some wood to chop back at mom’s place.
I took one Brønnøysund picture with my cell phone and if you have been watching the Brønnøysund pictures I have taken with my Canon for the past week, you hopefully realize the difference – if you ever were in doubt…
Trip statistics: 2,9km, 205 vertical meters, 0h:41m
Skardåsen (70m), Jan 17 2026
Saturday: Mom’s progress after the prolapse was so good that today, she wanted to test herself on the forest path up Skardsåsen.
She looked perfectly normal, although I knew she struggled with one leg – much weaker than the other.
She got up just fine and was clearly happy about it.
I was a bit worried about taking the same route down, but it went just fine. She only fell once – rather controlled.
The weather wasn’t the best today. We got one intense rain shower, but that was it.
Trip statistics: 1km, 75 vertical meters, 0h:47m
Tilremshatten (318m), Jan 17 2026
Saturday: This was my last full day in Brønnøysund, and I had hoped to go to Ramntinden. But because of warmer temperatures and rain, I didn’t want to drive the Eide road. So, I settled for Tilremshatten from Tilrem – one more time.
It was raining in the beginning, and I could see there was fog on the mountain. But even on such a day, they sky could offer colors…
Next up, was the cool ridge.
I caught up with a guy on snowshoes, but he didn’t seem to be interested in talking, which was OK by me. Maybe he was listening to a podcast…
The view from the top was nowhere close what I had gotten used to, the past two weeks. But everything good must come to an end.
On my way down, I decided to check out the gorge below the ridge route. I had to be extremely careful. I had no idea what kind of terrain I was walking on.
I had a feeling that the snow made the hike easier, but also more dangerous. I could easily fall into a hole that I might struggle to get out of…
Once the hard part was over, I relaxed and decided that was a cool variation to the route.
I relaxed so much that I ended up deep in water/mud – up to my thighs – and had to return to the car soaking wet.
But with good socks, there’s never panic. And I could take the time for my last picture up here, this time. Not sure when I will be back. Surely this summer, but perhaps one trip before that? I don’t know. It all depends on mom’s progress…
Trip statistics: 3,1km, 340 vertical meters, 1h:15m
Flying home + Huldrehornet (271m), Jan 18 2026
Sunday: I was lucky being picked up by my friend Jorun when I arrived in Brønnøysund on Jan 2nd, and today, I drove to the airport in mom’s car, with mom’s neighbour Reidun in the passenger seat and mom in the back seat. When I got to the airport, Reidun drove the car back home. Mom can’t drive while on heavy medication.
The flight to Oslo went well. It was a bit annoying that I couldn’t find a route via Trondheim, but OK. I enjoyed the flight.
When I got to Oslo, I had gotten both SMS and email from Norwegian. “We are sorry to inform you that…” Oh crap! Not a good start to a popup notification. But when I checked the rest of the message, it read “your flight has been delayed by 10 minutes”.
If I had an express boat to catch, that could have been worrying, but as I had left my car at Vigra, 10 minutes was nothing to worry about.
Most of the flight from Oslo was in thick fog, but I got some glimpses of the Haram mountains as we approached Vigra.
The fee for the parking (17 days) was worse than I had feared – NOK 1550, -.
I tried to start the car, but it didn’t start. Clearly, the battery was working just fine, so what was the problem? I tried again. Nothing. Then I realized that this wasn’t an automatic car, which I had been driven for the past 17 days. So, when I pressed the brake AND the clutch, voila… Man, I felt stupid.
I arrived at my home just past 6pm. 10 minutes later I was on my way to the Huldrehornet trailhead, determined to hike it twice so I could get 500 vertical meters. I wouldn’t meet my weekly goal of 3500 vertical meters this week, but it was OK. It was January.
The hike up and down Huldrehornet was strenuous. I was tired after traveling. The 2nd trip was even harder. It feels weird complaining about 500 vertical meters, but as I said – I was tired.
I slept like a log that night…
Trip statistics: 4,5km, 510 vertical meters, 1h:30m
