Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Flåna, Garnestua round trip, Dec 28 2008
To the main Garnestua page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
Note: While the map says Gardnestua, the locals say the correct name is Garnestua, and this is the name I'm using in text and on pictures.
The route
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This Sunday was simply a wonderful, wonderful day, and I decided to pay Flåna and Garnestua a visit. I hadn't been to Garnestua since May 12 2006, but I remembered that the views were good. I was also eager to become familiar with the west side of the mountain, where I hadn't been before. The ascent route would be from the quarry at Kvalneset, and I would decide on the descent route at the summit.
At the quarry, I took an interest in the remaining portion of the lower section of the west ridge. Most of it had been blown away and there was only a tiny skeleton left. My approach wasn't of the clever sort; I tried to get up via some bush that had been cut down and tossed away next to the ridge. It ended the way it had to end; the bush didn't hold my weight, I went straight through and felt a strong pain from the place where it hurts the most..
Once on the ridge, I had to be careful as the ground was frozen. The rock was as slippery as ice, and I didn't have a great deal of latitude on parts of this ridge. Once past the quarry, I came across the cairn path that I followed to Lake Garnesvatnet.
Looking down on the quarry
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From the lake, I headed northeast and ascended Flåna while a couple of hikers headed down. On the summit, I could see people on Hasundhornet and on Garnestua. These hills were crowded! No wonder, on a day such as this. The 600 vertical meter ascent had taken me 1h:20m, including the messy start of the hike.
On my way to Garnestua, I met three guys from Kvamsøya, and we had a long and nice chat. I reached the summit 1:50pm, and had to figure out where to descend. The options were many, but I decided to follow Garnestua's southwest ridge and gradually work my way back over to my ascent route.
Folks descending Flåna
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On my way down Garnestua, I ran into a guy from Haddal. It turned out that he had taken part in building the cairn on Haddalshornet, and that he had also done the steep gully route on the east side. That was very useful information, as I had been wondering this gully was doable at all.
I descended towards Garneshornet - the small top next to Garnesvatnet, and then passed it on the south side. There I came across a path which I followed all the way down to the RV61/RV653 junction. To get back to the car, I had to walk along the highway for 1,1km. I took away the feeling that there could be a correlation between the make of a car, and the distance kept to pedestrians.
The time was 3:10pm when I reached to the car. This was indeed a pleasant walk, and very useful in terms of information. Garneshornet (454m) will be a convenient target those afternoons I'm only up for 450 vertical meters. The Kvalneset trailhead is only a 5-minute drive from my house.
Molladalstindane seen from Garnestua
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