A very nice hike on Hareidlandet island!
| Date | Peak | Height | PF | Location | WCP/FP | MAP |
| 01.03.26 | Mosvarden | 553m | 50m | Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
| 01.03.26 | Storebroren | 620m | 177m | Hareid/Ulstein, Norway | WCP | MAP |
Sunday: A glorious weather day, and I really wanted to go hiking or skiing in a different mountain region. But, as I had on-call duty, I had to stick to my local backyard. After breakfast, I decided that I was in no hurry and watched Vasaloppet – a legendary 90km cross-country skiing competition (in Sweden). A Norwegian won the women’s race, a Swede won the men’s. Okey-dokey!
Around noon, I drove to Ulsteinvik to hike Storebroren. I parked at Bugarden and followed the gravel road in the direction of lake Mosvatnet. I was happy to see that lots of people were out, enjoying the beautiful day.
From the top of the first hill, there was snow on the road.
Then I decided that instead of hiking to lake Mosvatnet, I would hike via Mosvarden.
After the first hill, I could see both Storebroren and Mosvarden ahead of me.
Walking was easy. I don’t know what the temperature was, but I was only wearing a Brynje mesh shirt and I wasn’t feeling cold at all.
I had a short break on Mosvarden, enjoying the wonderful scenery.
Then I continued towards Storebroren.
The snow looked hard but didn’t carry my weight. There would be no off-trail adventures today.
A woman was just ahead of me (she came from Hareidsdalen) and we had a nice chat on top.
Then I had the summit to myself.
The Sunnmøre alps were stunning today.
And to the north were familiar mountains, packed, racked and stacked.
I decided to return to Bugarden via Sarshornet and left the top.
After a minute, I met a guy on his way up. We started talking and this was quite an experienced mountain man! We talked non-stop for 35 minutes, before parting. This guy had crossed lake Mosvatnet on the north side and felt that the ice was quite safe. When I told him I had ice-picks, he said I could easily cross the lake in the middle. So, I decided that I would try that.
I would never have thought about crossing this lake if he hadn’t said it was probably safe. That said, I know that there is nothing called “safe ice”. Just “safe hikers”. With ice-picks, I would be able to rescue myself. And with some dry clothes in my backpack, I would probably survive the hike down to Bugarden.
I started crossing the ice. It felt safe enough at first. Then the ice started to make cracking noises below me. I knew the lake wasn’t deep here and stomped until I broke the surface. Then I put my fist in. Just slush. No solid ice beneath.
Maybe I had found the only weak spot (it was near a drain), I don’t know. But I felt uneasy and chose to follow the tracks from the other guy.
On my way back to Bugarden, I suddenly decided to follow the path to Nibben. The path was 90% ice but not difficult to follow, due to lots of naked rock in-between the ice.
Once I reached the Bugarden – Skeide road, I crossed it and did a hike through the Osberget forest.
Great hike. Looking forward to spring now.
Trip statistics: 16,6km, 750 vertical meters, 4h:47m
