Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Liadalsnipa (normal route), May 29 2009
To the main Liadalsnipa page
(maps, pictures, other trip reports)
It had been almost a year since I visited Liadalsnipa for the first time. It had struck me that while I remembered everything about the east ridge traverse, I remembered very little from the normal route. The main reason is probably a mix of a fast pace and suspense about how scary the east ridge would be. And as I hadn't descended along the normal route, I decided to re-visit Liadalsnipa. The snow below the summit had recently melted, so the conditions were perfect. I would take the trip on this Friday afternoon, and invited my colleague Terje Ø. to come along.
Terje had no experience with steep mountain tops, but I was quite confident that he would do just fine up there, and I didn't consider bringing a rope. Most people who are not familiar with steep mountains, will look at Liadalsnipa, and think "this is a very, very, serious mountain". And I'm sure Terje had this thought too, especially upon arriving at the Liadalsnipa trailhead.
Liadalsnipa
(Click for larger image)
We left the trailhead 6:06pm and headed up the forest path, sweating like crazy. The weekend was supposed to be very hot, and the weekend had already begun...
After the first scrambling section, Terje commented that it was easy going up, but that the descent would be tougher. Therefore, I recommended that we scrambled back down this section. As there would not be any (significantly) harder sections, it can be nice to do this up-and-down thing, and leave any worries about the descent behind. After scrambling this section up and down two times, Terje seemed acclimated to the mountain, and we continued upwards.
Scrambling Liadalsnipa
(Click for larger image)
The normal route involved much more scrambling than I remembered. There were three sections where I knew that we would have to plan the moves upon descent. But it was good fun, of course. This is a very enjoyable route for those who enjoy scrambling.
Below the steepest section, the normal route turns left before it follows a gully back onto the ridge. This gully doesn't particularly require any scrambling, but because of loose gravel and slick rock, this is possibly the most dangerous section of the entire route. We knew that we would have to descend this part with a strong focus.
Airy path
(Click for larger image)
We reached the summit 7:40pm, 1h:35m after heading out. What a brilliant place to be on a Friday afternoon! Still there was no reason to celebrate just yet. The hardest part of the normal route is the descent. But we would worry about that later. Being up here, we should definitely enjoy the mountain, the weather and the views!
Enjoying the evening
(Click for larger image)
A bit later on, it was time for the descent, and the cameras went into the backpack. The only piece of advice I gave Terje before we headed down the first section, was; keep a low centre of gravity. Terje said that this was the ugliest part of the route. He enjoyed the scrambling sections, but the upper section was ugly. I agreed.
Without any difficulties during descent, we were back at the trailhead 8:53pm. Terje seemed to already be thinking about his next steep mountain top. Driving home with the roof in the trunk was a must, and we stopped in Ørsta for ice-cream. It was a perfect Friday afternoon...
