Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Vanylven

Litlebøra & Storebøra on skis, Jan 4 2009


To the main Storebøra page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)

 

After the fairly disappointing Christmas and New Year weather, I woke up this Sunday to stunning and cold weather. The temperature was around -10 deg. C., which doesn't happen very often in this coastal region. I immediately decided to visit Storebøra - which I had to cancel 3 days earlier. But the trip was already in danger before it got started, as I couldn't get the car doors open. This was a kind of odd situation, and I had to choose between waiting for proper daylight or apply the brute force method. I chose the latter, and got the door open without ripping out the handle..

Finally on the road, I looked forward to a number of things. First of all the mountain, but also seeing new places, like Årvika, Koparneset and Fiskå. The roads were polished, and I decided to drive very carefully. Especially down to Larsnes. As I drove from Koparneset after taking the ferry from Årvika, I kept staring at the "Syvdsalpane" peaks across Syvdsfjorden. Very, very beautiful.  

Syvdsalpane

Syvdsalpane
(Click for larger image)

Using the GPS, I found the Storebøra trailhead, but I didn't find any place to park. A local came to the rescue and offered me to park on his property. After a nice chat with him, I was on my way 10:25am. The snow had a nasty crust, which kept beating on my legs. But this only lasted for 30 seconds, as a tractor popped up in front of me, and made a nice track all the way to 390m elevation. OTOH, skiing down would probably not be fun, being locked onto a narrow track.

Near the end of the road, I caught up with a guy on crutches. This was his walk #100 with crutches on this road, and he told me that he was confident that no one else had done that. "You're probably very right about that", I replied and learned that the crutches were not permanent hiking gear. Good for him. 

Almost at end of the road

Almost at end of the road
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At end of the road, the landscape opened up in front of me. The mountain presented itself, shiny white with a lingering touch of morning red. The snow was still hard on the surface, so I followed the ski tracks from the tractor guy. Soon, the snow quality got better and the snow was quite firm on my way up Litlebøra.

I hadn't even seen a glimpse of Storebøra until I reached the top of Litlebøra 11:50am. The ascent had been quite easy, thanks to the tractor tracks and a ridge with little snow. There were mountains all around, even towards the sea, and I could hardly wait to get to Storebøra and start taking pictures. But first, I had to plod my way down Litlebøra on skins. An 86m descent didn't warrant removing the skins. Especially since I needed them for ascending Storebøra, and the temperature was probably close to -15 deg. C.

Looking back on Litlebøra

Looking back on Litlebøra
(Click for larger image)

I arrived on Storebøra summit 12:25pm, and was met by a heavenly panorama. I looked forward especially to post-processing these pictures, as I had never seen the mountains from this particular angle before. It wasn't difficult to pinpoint dominating mountains such as Saudehornet, Trollvasstinden, Hornelen, Gjegnen, etc., but there were many mountains I hadn't seen before. This was only my second trip to this peninsula, and there will (hopefully) be many more to come.

Syvdsalpane

Syvdsalpane
(Click for larger image)

I didn't have the guts to let the skis flow down Storebøra. The crust would at times just slam me to the ground, and there were also rocks just below the snow. I aimed just west of point 605m, until I decided to confirm with the GPS. It turned out that it was the wrong direction. After adjusting the course, I was back on Fjellveien road minutes later.

The descent was just as little fun as I had anticipated, but it didn't matter all that much. The overall trip was just too good. On my way down, I met two other skiers that would attempt Storebøra, provided they could get up and down before dark. I got back to the car 1:12pm, and already started looking forward to my next visit to this region.

Pictures

The pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 300D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6

 
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To Fiskå

1. Skoratinden 2. Blæja 3. Sandegga 4. At Fiskå

To Litlebøra

0. Trip tracks 5. Fjellvegen road 6. View from the forest road 7. Fiskå 8. The trailhead 9. Storebakkjen hill 10. Near the end of the road 11. View from the end of the road 12. On the way up Litlebøra 13. High on Litlebøra 14. On the way up Litlebøra, looking down 15. Storebøra seen from Litlebøra

To Storebøra

16. On the way up Storebøra 17. Litlebøra 18. Storebøra summit cairn 19. Hornelen 20. Syvdsalpane 21. Litlebøra 22. Børevatnet 23. Tunheimshornet 24. Høgenipa

Wide-angle view from Storebøra

25. Wide-angle view from Storebøra

360 deg. 85mm zoom view from Storebøra

26. 85mm zoom view from Storebøra, part 1 of 4 27. 85mm zoom view from Storebøra, part 2 of 4 28. 85mm zoom view from Storebøra, part 3 of 4 29. 85mm zoom view from Storebøra, part 4 of 4

Descent

30. Descending Storebøra 31. Descending Storebøra 32. Fjellvegen summer parking 33. Vorakinna 34. Svartetua

Driving home

35. Syvdsalpane 36. Syvdsalpane 37. Syvdsalpane 38. Syvdsalpane 39. Laupsnipa 40. Ørsta peaks 41. Nystøylhornet 42. Syvdsalpane 43. Skoratinden

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