Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Hasundhornet via Klo-gylet, Mar 21 2009
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The route
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The scrambler in me likes couloirs and gullies. I guess it’s their aesthetic appeal, being classic lines up the mountain. No switching back and forth. It's up the gully or no deal at all. The hiker in me likes ridges, also being classic lines. Climbers look for similar things on a mountain face. I admit that I don't know the clear distinction between a gully and a couloir, other than that a couloir is supposed to be ... larger. I tend to confuse the two. My apologies.
In addition to the aesthetic side, the couloir might have interesting obstacles, often large rocks that force you to climb or scramble. Normally, one is more or less bound to the couloir, because the sides defining it are too steep. Thus, the nerve begins to manifest itself. "OK, so I can climb up this obstacle, but what if I have to turn around higher up". I normally don't bring climbing gear to the couloirs, to avoid the temptation of taking too many risks. Solo climbing is a lonesome activity and not considered to be very safe...
Recently, I did the easiest of the Hasundhornet couloirs/gullies - Klyftagylet. Which was fun, but it was rather easy and I wasn't totally satisfied until I had done the main couloir on Hasundhornet's west face. According to a picture I've seen, the main couloir is called Klo-gylet (claw gully), and I can see that the upper part of the couloir may indeed resemble a claw.
Klo-gylet
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I parked the car at the Dimna junction and headed straight up the forest. I followed a rocky gully, avoiding the surrounding bush. I entered the couloir and assumed that the steepest section was in the middle, and not near the top. This turned out to be correct.
The first obstacle was a large rock that blocked the way. I could have climbed it, but it was easier to bypass it on the side. Had this been impossible, this is where I might have turned around. Because if I would have turn around higher up, then climbing down this rock might have been a bit ugly. Passing above this obstacle, I ended up following a side-gully 40-50m upwards, only to find that getting back into the couloir was difficult. I headed back down and followed my original plan.
The second obstacle was a bit more serious. There was a large number of smaller rocks that seemed fresh off the mountain. I even felt that the smell of gunpowder was still in the air, and I was in a hurry to move on. The obstacle was 3-4 meters high (YDS class 3 with exposure), and it seemed that the side-gully was an easier route. But I couldn't be certain, and now that I was here, I decided to climb it - knowing climbing down (should I have to) would be harder than climbing up.
Once on top of this obstacle, I lost my lens cap while taking a picture. It fell to the point where I began the climb. Now what? Should I proceed, short of a lens cap, or should I retrieve it? I decided to retrieve it and attempted to climb down, face in. That didn't feel good at all, so I climbed down face out. Having secured the lens cap, I climbed back up and proceeded up the couloir.
Above the second obstacle
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The third obstacle was a collection of huge rocks that blocked the way. Fortunately, there was a small ridge up to my right, and it was full of juniper bush. The bush helped me to safely get onto this ridge and past the obstacle. But getting back into the couloir wasn't easy, and I had to follow the small ridge to its end. Then I could re-enter the couloir, and I saw that the rest of the route was easy. It's this moment that defines the hike - the moment of celebration - when I know that I'm able to complete the route.
In retrospect, it wasn't a very difficult route, but if you want to begin scrambling couloirs, don't start with this one. The hardest point was YDS class 3 (easy climbing) and several points are exposed in the sense that a fall could easily turn out very bad.
I reached the top of Hasundhornet 11:30am, 1h:10m after heading out. The question now was how I should get back down. The normal routes down the mountain would lead me far away from the car. I decided to head down the north ridge and see how things progressed.
They progressed quite well, although it was steep terrain. At 300m elevation, I changed direction to the west and passed obnoxious bush and boulder terrain before arriving on the main road, 400m away from the car. I then set course for Gurskøya and hiked Laupsnipa (558m) and Huldrehornet (271m).
Descending Hasundhornet
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