Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Levandehornet on skis, Mar 25 2007

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

Another gorgeous morning, and my excellent neighbour Pål volunteered to baby-sit my dog, which was still limping, and would benefit from a good rest. Thus, I was free to go on a short ski-trip. I invited my colleague Torill to come along, and as her "new tops in 2007" list was fairly thin, she had no other option than to accept the invitation. We met at Solavågen, and took the 09:20AM ferry to Festøya.

When we arrived the Skorgedalen trailhead (in Årsetdalen), there was only one car. Were we early, or did no one bother to visit this mountain on such a splendid day? We were on our way up the forest road 10:10AM, and looked more forward to spending the day out in the sunshine, than "bagging" a new top.

Skiers from the day before had left tracks all the way up to the summit. At the end of the forest road, I removed my skins, inspired from yesteday's trip to Svinetinden. The sun hadn't warmed up this part of the valley, and I had to ski outside the tracks, in order to have some sort of grip.

Just as we began the ascent up from Skorgedalen, we entered sunshine, and the vax-free skis stuck like glue to the snow. This condition lasted all the way up to Levandehornet's south ridge, where MOST of the snow was hard as ice. The skins had to come on again. I made a mental note that if the ENTIRE mountain side had hard snow, then crampons would have been necessary.

But thanks to some pitches of less-hard-snow, we reached Levandehornet on skis, 12:20PM. Sitting on this mountain was just brilliant. Another skier came along, and as we prepared to leave, 3 other skiers came (on foot) up the east ridge. 4 other skiers were on their way up the south ridge, and suddenly the mountain became "crowded".

The hard snow had softened a bit by now, and descending the west side was fun skiing. The snow was soft and wet down towards Skorgedalen, but we were still able to work on our Telemark skills. It felt DOWNRIGHT WRONG to leave this mountain, but it was time to get back home. We were back at the trailhead 14:10PM, and the place was now quite crowded. Two more skiers were preparing to ascend the mountain. We caught the 14:50PM ferry to Solavågen, and concluded that Levandehornet was for certain a mountain that could be recommended to anyone.