Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Blåfjellet on Vaksvikfjellet

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Blåfjellet on skis, Apr 14 2007

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

Work did not allow for a serious project this Saturday. But I needed to test my new vax-free skis, and decided to drive up to Vaksvikfjellet. The only top I had time for, was Blåfjellet. The fact that I hadn't been to this top before, was a bonus.

I wasn't sure how far one could drive after all this snowmelt, but I expected that the trip wouldn't take long. The road was closed (because of snow), I guess, in the usual place. And suddenly, Blåfjellet didn't seem like a short trip, after all.

The dog and I headed out 11:32AM. The skis worked perfectly on this road. It was a WARM day, and the crust on the old ski-tracks had just begun to soften up. I started out together with two other skiers, heading for Sunnmørslauparlægda. After a while, I figured I should go for a short-cut towards Blåfjellet. Mental note: check the map first. A river was between me and the mountain, and there were no snowbridges left.

Fording a river with a dog in the backpack isn't easy, so I decided to ski along the lake, towards Kjersemsetra. This was nice skiing, and the dog was able to run on this snow. At Kjersemsetra, I was able to get across some minor creeks (on snowbridges) before I reached Blåfjellelva. This river was too wild for my taste, and I decided to stay on north side.

I found a snowbridge at 560m and noticed that the other skiers were ahead of me. They must have found a place to ford the river. I could also see their tracks from crossing Blåfjellelva. The rotten snow in the forest was a bit cumbersome, but skiing became easier on my way up Blåfjellet. I had no use for skins, and the skis felt light. I wondered how it would be to descend on rotten snow with these, fairly narrow skis.

We reached Blåfjellet 13:25PM, and the trip was nowhere as short as I had figured it to be. After a round of pictures, I decided to descend directly towards Grytalisætra. I had to go through a forest, but it didn't seem very dense. Skiing down the forest was good. The snow wasn't as rotten as I had feared, and I was able to ski fairly efficiently down to Grytalisætra. From here on, Troll was able to walk on ski-tracks, and we were back at the trailhead 14:20PM.

It was almost 20 degrees outside, and of course, the hardtop roof had to go in the trunk. I also pulled down the windows, and noticed, to my delight, that the seat belt gave me a good massage on my left shoulder. Yet another bonus.