Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Sunndalsnipa on foot from Grøndalen, June 20 2009


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Sunndalsnipa

Sunndalsnipa
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As I left home on this Saturday morning, I had absolutely no idea about where I would end up. The weather was a bit funny; the sun was shining, but there were obviously rain showers roaming around in the region. I decided to drive with the roof down, and ignored a shower as I passed Volda.

I started thinking about Otredalsfjellet, but when I saw Sunndalsnipa only partly wrapped in fog, I began to focus on this mountain instead. I drove up to Grøndalen, and as the weather was still quite OK, I decided to give Sunndalsnipa a try.

 

Sunndalsnipa

Sunndalsnipa
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I located the path starting at Grøndalsstølen and followed it up to Fantekrålvatnet. Along the way, I had been looking towards a snowy mountain with a long ridge - assuming it was Sunndalsnipa. At Fantekrålvatnet, I was just about to turn left and hike up a steep ridge when another mountain appeared up to my right. As I knew that there shouldn't be "anything high" up to my right, I had to check the GPS. And sure enough - I was on my way to Eidskyrkja...

After adjusting my course from west to east (!), a full bag of miserable weather (fog and rain) came in through Sunndalen. I tried to find something positive in this, and was thinking that after the rain shower, I would enjoy sunshine on the summit. I noticed one or two hikers heading up Eidskyrkja, before the fog took away most of the views.

When I reached the vast summit plateau, it was snowing (!) lightly. But I could see a spot of blue sky above, and by the time I reached the summit cairn (1pm - exactly 2 hours after heading out), the weather was quite ok - except for the fog that kept hitting on the mountain. Hah! Bonus! I hadn't taken one step in snow before I reached the summit plateau, but on the plateau there was still quite a lot of the stuff. But it carried my weight and never became a concern.

Just below Sunndalsnipa summit cairn

Just below Sunndalsnipa summit cairn
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After a short visit down to the viewpoint just north of the summit cairn, I began my descent down the mountain. The weather remained stable, and I had a nice hike down the south ridge. Rather than following the path in the forest, I decided to hike Litlevassdalsegga and hoped that I could find a non-aggravating route down to Grøndalsstølen.

When I reached the Litlevassdalsegga cairn, I could see that I had a lot of forest between myself and the trailhead. And then it started to rain. At first, I fought my way down a ridge with low birch of the unpleasant sort. Then I headed into thicker forest, where I had to test every step I made.

Suddenly, I found myself between a lamb and the mother, and they hadn't noticed me. I sat down and yelled me-eeeeee. I got an immediate response from both sides. I varied my sheep-voice repertoire, and got variations in return. At moooooh stage, the mother simply had to find out what was going on, and came along with "what the.. ?" written all over her face. Then the lamb appeared too, and I decided to leave them alone.

Looking back on Sunndalsnipa

Looking back on Sunndalsnipa
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I was back at the trailhead 2:50pm, 3h:50m after heading out. It was raining when I got into the car, but after having driven 10 meters (!), it was no longer raining and the road was dry. I could then enjoy a drive back home with the roof down, and one more time ignoring the rain shower that seemed to be permanently stuck above Volda.

Pictures

The first set of pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 450D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6.

 
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To Grøndalsstølen

0. Trip tracks 1. Sunndalsnipa 2. Otredalsfjellet 3. Grøndalen road 4. A Grøndalen local 5. Grøndalsstølen 6. Eidskyrkja

To Sunndalsnipa

7. Heading out 8. Towards Bygdaskaret 9. Up Bygdaskaret 10. Sunndalsnipa comes into view 11. The route to Eidskyrkja 12. Towards the south ridge 13. Kvitegga and Hattemakaren 14. Lusegras - Huperzia selago - Fir clubmoss/Northern firmoss 15. Steep wall 16. On the plateau 17. Sunndalssætrevatnet 18. Eidskyrkja 19. Upper Sunndalen valley 20. On Sunndalsnipa summit

On Sunndalsnipa

21. Waiting for the sun 22. A marker 23. On the way down to a viewpoint 24. A viewpoint cairn 25. More cairns 26. Eidskyrkja 27. Skaphornet 28. Sunndalen 29. Middagshornet

Descent

30. Across the plateau 31. View down the ridge 32. Eidskyrkja 33. View up the ridge 34. Litlevassdalsegga 35. Local mountains 36. Eidskyrkja 37. View up Sunndalsnipa 38. View up Sunndalsnipa 39. Kvitegga and Hattemakaren 40. Grøndalsvatnet 41. Grøndalsstølen 42. Lambs waiting for the rain to stop 43. Skaphornet

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