Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Meraftafjellet, Ursfjellet, Vasstrandfjellet, Spjelkavikfjellet, Høgekubben, Haugtua

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Meraftafjellet from Rogneneset, Dec 31 2005

This route is described as route 2 on the Uksenøya main page.

Trip report Dec 31 2005

It was the last day of 2005, and the weather wasn't all that bad. I decided to visit the Uksenøya high point on skis. I had studied the map up front, but obviously, my attention must have been elsewhere, because the trip didn't quite turn out as I had thought.

I located the forest road that I had planned to follow, and with my little dachshund "Troll" in my backpack, I was on my way 10:30AM. The forest road was surprisingly steep, and the snow was hard as ice. The plan was more or less to follow the path to Svartevatnet, following the path that was outlined on the map. From the lake, the trip up the southwest ridge looked easy.

I arrived a road junction that was not found on my map, but stayed on the main road until I reached the top of a hill. From this point, I could see my route ahead, but the forest seemed surprisingly steep. Where was my ascent route? Since I was practically 400m just below the summit, I started thinking about a roundtrip. The steep forest that I had in view was certainly more attractive as a descent route. I skied back down to the road junction and followed the other road up a hill, where the road ended.

I had a very rugged forest (for a skier) ahead of me, but now that I had come this far, I might as well continue. The most awkward obstacles were fallen trees. I aimed for the east ridge, and hoped that things would get easier the higher I got. It did, and as I had the east ridge in sight, I was able to ski fairly normally again. I ran into deep tracks on this ridge, indicating that someone had a tough walk on foot up this mountain.

A steep face was rising ahead of me, but there was a way around on the right-hand side, and I didn't have to take my skis off in order to advance up to the 518m viewpoint. The summit was now only 700m further to the west and I arrived the summit cairn 12:15PM. Great views. I took pictures while the dog was wandering about on the plateau.

Troll once again returned to the backpack before I skied down the southwest ridge. When I reached the upper forest, I had problems figuring out where to descend. Everything looked incredibly steep, and skiing was out of the question. I took the skis off and followed a ridge which turned out to be too steep. I moved into a couloir and stomped my way down. I was afraid that I would step onto a field of ice and rush down the couloir. According to my GPS, I was close to the path, which obviously is much easier to follow when the snow has gone.

I passed the old building at Heggebakksætra, but didn't put the skis back on before I reached the forest road. Troll was more than willing to walk the remaining distance, and by 13:15PM, we were back at the trailhead. A very interesting hike had come to its end. I would certainly like to emphasise that if you are looking for a nice skiing route up to Meraftafjellet, don't follow my route.