Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Storbua, Sandfjellet, Kvasstinden, Aksla

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Storbua and Sandfjellet from Øvstedalen, June 30 2007

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

3 days earlier, I visited Kleiva for the first time, when Svein and I visited Storlihornet. Fogged in as we were, we saw little or nothing. But the area interested me, so this Saturday I returned for Storbua and Sandfjellet. My little buddy - the backpacker Troll came along. It was a warm and sunny morning when I parked the car near the Dalskleiva trailhead.

To Storbua

I headed out 09:50AM, and of course, I had to carry Troll up Dalskleiva. This was my kind of trailhead. In less than 30 minutes, I was up by the lake, having a handful of tops to choose between. In addition to Storlihornet, one can also ascend Litleskorka and Rollsbotnskorka from here. Troll walked 200m along the ridge towards Sandfjellet, before his tongue began to collect gravel. His days of mountain ascents are definetly over.

I chose to visit Storbua first. That was a wrong decision, considering the snow slide down from Sandfjellet that I missed. But the hill towards Storbua seemed to be the worst part, and I wanted to get it over with. At 840m, I left the Sandfjellet ridge, and headed towards Storbua without losing my vertical gain. I crossed the drain from the lake via a snow bridge and began the strenuous walk up Storbua's western flank.

This was probably the most annoying boulder walk I've ever done. The flank was steep, the rocks were loose, and it was one step ahead and two steps back. But finally, I reached the summit plateau, and Troll enjoyed a delightful roll on snow. The time was 12:25PM when I reached the cairn. There was scattered fog in the various mountain regions, but all in all, the views were just excellent.

To Sandfjellet

After a short stop on Storbua, I moved on to Kvasstinden and reached the cairn 13:00PM. This was an airy spot, and I instructed the dog NOT to move away from the backpack. After some pictures I headed towards Sandfjellet's snowy south flank. I was slightly tired when I began my ascent. I was out of water and hadn't brought anything to eat. The sun was burning, but the comfort that there was only 160 vertical meters ahead of me. Damned, it would have been nice to slide down this hill!!

Sandfjellet's cairn was reached 13:35PM. The vertical ascent was for the most part over, and things were looking up. Troll enjoyed his lunch in a small spot below the cairn, again with instructions not to move. I tried to get an impression of the ridge towards Geitemjølktinden. It didn't look too bad, but at least one point looked steep. And going down in the gullies seemed like a big detour. Never mind. I wasn't going that way today.

Aksla

I put Troll back in the backpack and headed down the southwest ridge. A point on the ridge (and I later learned that locals call it Aksla) seemed more and more airy the closer I came. I had to make a decision whether I should head across this point, or descend via the valley. Of course, there was never any doubt. Aksla looked way too cool to miss.

The ridge leading towards the cairn got more and more narrow and airy, but quite unproblematic. On the far side of the cairn, things looked harder. It wasn't far down to the main ridge, but scrambling down the slabs seemed like a bad idea. I HAD to get there via the ridge crest. The scrambling was easy enough, but quite airy. At one point, I had to go outside the ridge (to the west) in order to bypass a long slab with minor handholds. It was altogether a fun scramble, and a big bonus, considering the slightly dull boulder terrain on this massif.

No doubt, going upwards would have been easier. And some do ski across this ridge. I can imagine that one can reach the summit on skis, but the ridge towards Sandfjellet will be too narrow, and an ice-axe (and possibly crampons) will be needed.

The horse

The remaining descent was uneventful, except for when I discovered that a horse was rubbing its ass on my car. I was witnessing this from 400m above the car, and shouting didn't seem like it would solve "the problem". I assumed that I would find both mirrors on the ground, by the time I got there. The horse was on his way up the road as we came down. Troll was walking, and I didn't bother putting him back in. The horse was VERY curious about this little four-legged creature, as we were passing by. Naughty horse, I told him in a firm voice. But if you itch, you itch, I added, finding it very difficult to be upset with this nice horse. And the horse had behaved well, and only scratched his ass on the rear end of the car.

By 15:45PM, the 6 hour hike and yet another fine day in the mountains, had come to its end.