Norwegian Mountains, Nordland
Dønna
Dønnmannen, July 11 2010
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Dønnmannen
(Click for larger image)
A week had passed
since Anne Rudsengen and me arrived at our "base-camp" in Brønnøysund. So
far, we'd been very lucky with the weather, and had done several memorable hikes
- such as Kjelviktinden,
Vega and Romsskåla. But now
it seemed that our luck was about to turn, as the weather forecast for the next
days was quite miserable. The good news was that the weather seemed to be better
higher up along the coastline, so we agreed that if we were to visit Dønnmannen,
this would be a good time.
On July 10th, we
drove to Sandnessjøen and found our place in the ferry lane. I was overwhelmed
by the size of the ferry, especially since we don't have ferries even close
to this size on Sunnmøre. And there were certainly enough cars to fill up the
ferry, so my conclusion was that Dønna seemed to be a busy place. At least in
summer..
We had booked
accommodation on the Dønnes Gård farm - located on the north side of the
island. On the way there, we stopped to marvel over
the infamous phallus rock. Anne is more into cultural stuff
than I am, and seemed to have a good time...
The phallus on Dønna
(Click for larger image)
We checked into
Dønnes Gård - a nice place with roots that went a long way back in
time. The lady of the mansion greeted us welcome and showed us our room.
Everything was old style, and the toilet was out in the hallway. Anne
adored the place. To me, it was OK for one night, but in general I'm more than
happy about a regular hotel room... To my delight, we
discovered that there was a small mountain (Dønnesfjellet) just above
Dønnes Gård, and that its primary factor was >100 meters. A
car road leads up to the restaurant on top, and we went there for dinner. The
moral dilemma was if I could claim a new top when a car brought me up?
Eventually, the answer was Yes I can!, and I found peace at heart...
The next morning, we
packed our gear and started to think about Dønnmannen. The weather was
just great, and we really looked forward to the hike. But before leaving Dønnes,
I wanted to visit Dønnesfjellet one more time to see if I could get a good
picture of Lovund. And this famous coastal peak looked utterly beautiful,
and I can't wait to get there!
Leaving Dønnes Gård
(Click for larger image)
I had been
wanting to visit Dønnmannen for 10 years, and today the dream would come
true. I don't think Anne had a clear perception of how the mountain
looked like, but I've seen it from Brønnøysund for as long as I can
remember. But as we approached Teistadvika, and Dønnmannen rose up in
front of us - it looked even more wild and beautiful than I had
expected...
Dønnmannen comes into view
(Click for larger image)
We headed out from
Teistadvika 9:17am, and followed the well worn (and well marked) path
upwards. As we covered ground, the view toward De Syv
Søstre got increasingly better, and I enjoyed thinking back on my two trips
there.
The hike didn't get
really interesting before we reached the ridge at 700 meters, and the rope
section a bit higher up. There was no need to use the ropes, so we did not. The
view towards the numerous islands between Dønna and Vega was simply astonishing.
I tried to identify Blomsøya, as I have roots there, but wasn't able to
distinguish one island from the other.
We reached the east
top 10:50am, and took a deserved break while enjoying the views. And there
was indeed plenty to look at! A
mailbox told us that we had arrived on Dønnmannen - 858m, but we knew that the
high point was another 500 meters to the west. I really, really dislike
misleading signposts...
The east top and the summit ridge
(Click for larger image)
It was time to reach
the true goal for the day, and we continued across the summit ridge. We
reached the high point 11:14am - approx. 2 hours after heading out.
Although Dønnmannen was the only target, Nasen (the westernmost top) seemed like an
interesting place to visit. I went out and looked for a route along the ridge,
but soon concluded that we would have to descend a long way before we could get
up to Nasen. I went back up to the high point and continued to enjoy the
views...
South view from Dønnmannen
(Click for larger image)
After an enjoyable
stay at the top, we descended our ascent route and returned to the trailhead 1pm. We still had plenty of time
before the ferry departure, so we drove to a bay where Anne could get her swim.
While Anne was enjoying the (cold) water, I was daydreaming about Lovund,
Hestmannen, Trænstaven and Rødøyløva. I'm not done with the Nordland coastline
yet. Not done at all.
A good end to a hike
(Click for larger image)
We returned to
base-camp Brønnøysund the same day, and got a quick update on the weather
forecast. It was still ranging from mediocre to bad, but things looked better to
the east. So the next day, we went to Hattfjelldal to visit
Hatten.
Leaving Dønna
(Click for larger image)
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