Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Dalegubben from Sæbø, Oct 7 2006

For Information, maps, trailhead and route descriptions, click HERE.


Trip report, Oct 7 2006

This trip was done together with Petter Bjørstad and his son Pål Jørgen (PJ), on their brief visit in the Møre og Romsdal region. They had hiked Såtbakkollen (1840m) on Thursday and Nordre Slotthøa (1837m) on Friday, and arrived my place on Friday afternoon, after 18-19 hours (total) of hiking. Dalegubben, having the 14th highest primary factor in Møre og Romsdal, had been on the to-do list for a long time, and only REALLY shitty weather would prevent us from reaching it the next day.

The next day, Saturday, seemed shitty at first glance. But it wasn't raining as hard as I thought it did, and I could actually see Jønshornet (1419m) when we left Ålesund. And it was even raining lighter when we arrived the Sæbø trailhead. I had asked about the trailhead at a nearby farm, but trying to comprehend what they're were telling me, was just impossible. The dialect wasn't a problem, but it seemed like they described two different trailheads, and concluded by nodding to each other in full agreement. Of all the visual images I could have when I left the barn, I visualised Brad Pitt with his Irish dialect in the movie "Snatch". What the hell was he saying? Petter's evident question was unavoidable - "Where are we going?"

-- Just keep driving...

Ascent

After a small debate on where to go, we ended up trusting the GPS. The GPS was actually 100m off course at the time, but that was impossible to know. In any case, 10:45AM, we followed a forest path that led us to - what has to be - an outdoor theater and a very enjoyable log-bridge. After a few minutes, we were finally on the tractor road that we assumed we should be on, and followed it to its end.

According to "the book", a path should begin here, but no path was seen. We decided to go off-trail from the end of the tractor road. I vaguely remembered a picture of the route, and wanted to stay left until we found it. Petter wanted to stay right, aiming for Skondalen valley. We chose the middle-way and headed straight upwards, and eventually, found the path.

Skondalen was a looong valley. We became thirsty, but the river wasn't there. We didn't find running water until we reached the foothills of Litledalshornet. The water came from the mountain and immediately went underground. The valley was however blueberry-rich, and some of the ascent time was allocated to the blueberries.

It had been raining since we left the trailhead, and as the wind picked up in the upper part of the valley, one got cold while standing still. After a short hike up a steep hill, we arrived the summit 13:35PM. It was just impossible to tell whichever of the two high points was the highest, so we visited both, just to be sure.

While being on the summit, it stopped raining, and some rays of sunshine fell upon Slogen and its nearby mountains, making for some good pictures (relatively speaking).

Descent

PJ got cold and quickly began the descent. Petter and I followed and the weather held up until we were far down in Skondalen. A few light showers didn't matter much at this point. We followed the forest path down to the tractor road, and realised that we had been staring right at it, without seeing it. The stairway across the fence would have been a GREAT clue, but none of us ever saw it.

We were back at the trailhead 15:40PM and had a very rainy drive back to Ålesund. Jønshornet was nowhere to be seen, and we concluded that we should be happy with the outcome of such a day.

Pictures from the Oct 7 hike

To Dalegubben

1. The route (from a different trip) (215KB) 2. At the trailhead (245KB) 3. The outdoor theater (421KB) 4. A cool bridge (431KB) 5. On the tractor road (350KB) 6. View across the fjord (107KB) 7. Skondalen (179KB) 8. Rough features (172KB) 9. Rough features (196KB) 10. Litledalshornet fogged in (155KB) 11. PJ and Lynghalstinden (201KB) 12. Skondalen (270KB) 13. Lynghalstinden (128KB) 14. Final hill to Dalegubben (188KB) 15. The onwards ridge (190KB) 16. Petter in the final hill (177KB) 17. Steaming fog (126KB) 18. Dalegubben summit (204KB)

Views from Dalegubben

19. Lake Storevatnet (260KB) 20. Wide-angle view from Dalegubben (475KB) 21. Sæbø (202KB) 22. Bondalen (160KB) 23. Cool fog (200KB) 24. Cool fog (164KB) 25. Lynghalstinden (273KB) 26. Litledalshornet/Lisjedalshornet (275KB) 27. Mt. Tomahawk (161KB) 28. On the other high point (243KB)

Descent

29. Descending Dalegubben (277KB) 30. View towards Slogen (252KB) 31. Sylvkallen (164KB) 32. Pointy satelitte tops (143KB) 33. Descending Dalegubben (236KB) 34. Passing Litledalshornet (259KB) 35. Sæbø (173KB) 36. Stålberghornet and Helgehornet (142kB) 37. Sudden valley fog (229KB) 38. Slogen region (152KB) 39. Storhornet (190KB) 40. Slogen (158JB)

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