Norwegian Mountains, Møre og RomsdalRødlandstua, First visit, Jan 18 2006Back to the Rødlandstua main page. The winter months limit the choices for afternoon hikes, as it gets dark quite early. My regular afternoon hike here in Ålesund goes to Høgelia on Blindheimsfjellet, but this afternoon, I felt for exploring the forest north of Brusdalsvatnet. There were no paths on the map, but I've seen a few of forest roads the couple of times I've driven towards Skodje. Surely, one of them had to lead to the top? I left home around 16:00PM and decided that I would continue towards Høgelia if the forest road below Rollandstua didn't lead anywhere. While driving, I used the GPS to position myself southwest of Rollandstua, and looked for a forest road nearby. I found one that looked promising and was on my way 16:20PM. Troll was in the backpack. Daylight was limited and there was not time to wait around for the dog. The forest road ended after a couple of minutes of walking. Decision time. The forest looked quite easy. There was still daylight and it would just be a matter of keeping a straight line up and down the forest. The GPS didn't receive useful signals, so I couldn't rely on it. I figured I would have time to reach the ridge and perhaps I would find a path. There was no reason to be a coward, and went for it. Only a vague path was found on the ridge, but I didn't really need one. I knew that I would have to follow the ridge for a kilometer and then turn left. I walked quickly along the ridge and got Rollandstua in view after a while. From where I left the ridge, I made the final mental notes about the terrain, as it was turning dark. I reached the top 17:00PM, and skipped signing the visitor's register. I turned around immediately. The headlight had to come on, but wasn't really needed while I was on the ridge. I missed my ridge entry point and the forest was now totally dark. The headlight was not adding value, as I couldn't sense the surrounding terrain. The forest seemed much more inconvenient now. I aimed for some lights down by Brusdalsvatnet. I ended up in some very nasty bush terrain and figured I was way off my ascent route. But by the time I reached the powerline, I had the forest road just ahead of me. 17:30PM, we were back in the car. We then headed towards Hatlaåsen - a low forest ridge in my neighbourhood - but 2,5Km forest walk is excellent for the dog after an hour in the backpack.
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