Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Nakkefjellet, Grøtfjellet, Blåfjellet

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Nakkefjellet from Fiksdal, Nov 25 2006

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

The weather forecast for the week-end was not very good, so I decided to "wrap up" the remaining tops (5 altogether) in the area north of E39, from Ålesund to Vestnes. This area also included the islands Sula, Uksenøya, Godøya, Vigra, Giske and Ellingsøya. A little milestone, if you will, from my first 11 months in Ålesund. As Saturday would have the best weather, I decided to start out with Nakkefjellet in the morning, and move on to Kjølen on Ørskogfjellet later in the day. The next day would only involve 3 smaller forest tops in the Vestnes and Skodje regions.

I used the GPS to find the start of the forest road from Øvre Nakken. I didn't know about any paths up the mountain, so I would have to figure out my route as I went. My dog "Troll" and I left the trailhead 09:45AM, and like clockwork, the dog refused to walk after completing the "fun stuff". The forest road was nice, but I got bored from marginal elevation gain, and went off-trail. The forest was quite easy to travel, and soon I was above the tree-line.

I got Grøtfjellet in view, and sat course for the east ridge. From distance, it looked like a 5-minute walk, but the ridge grew bigger, the closer I got. Troll resumed walking when we entered the ridge, and spots with hard snow was a better surface than soft grass. A large bird, but probably not an eagle, encircled the summit, and a hare - faster than my camera's default shutter speed, were the wildlife sightings along the ridge. 11:00AM, we reached the top of Grøtfjellet, in strong winds.

I found Grøtfjellet to be a nice viewpoint, but it wasn't nice up there today, so we moved on after a few pictures. On my way to Blåfjellet, my eyes rested on the mighty fine Blåskjerdingen, and a fun route from Forsevatnet that I can't wait to try. We reached Blåfjellet 11:30AM, and it struck me that I enjoy this area - the Blåskjerdingen back-country - more than I had realised.

Upon descent from Blåfjellet, I tried to follow a path, but lost it as I got closer to Trolldalen. With Troll under my arm, I descended along a stream for a while, then moved over to the north side of the stream and descended the forest until I reached the forest road - 350m SW of where I left it upon ascent. By 12:20PM, we were back at the car, ready for the next stop - Kjølen on Ørskogfjellet.