Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Up & down Garnestua from Ringstadalen,
June 18 2009
To the main Garnestua/Flåna/Hasundhornet page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
The route
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I had been observing the Garnestua south side gullies ever since moving to Gurskøya, and on this Thursday afternoon, I decided to finally go and have a look. None of the routes seemed particularly interesting. The gullies didn't seem steep enough to be intriguing, but I wouldn't really know until I'd been up there.
I headed out from Ringstad, walked past a farm and followed a track that suddenly ended. There was a horse close by, and I tried to sneak past him without being noticed. I succeeded. I've had angry horses on my tail before, and it's a scary experience.
Then I ran into a juniper forest that - bar none - is the worst I've ever encountered. It just didn't seem to be an end to it, and there was no way out. Whatever the gully had to offer, would be nothing compared to this nightmare. But endurance normally pays off, and at last - I was inside the gully.
The Ringstad farm
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The only thing that was interesting about the gully was the slippery slabs that were .. occasionally .. hard to climb. I could have scrambled the grass next to the slabs, but that would have been completely boring! Some of the slabs actually called out for the "best" of me, and they were the sole reason why I topped out on the summit ridge in a fairly good mood.
The Garnestua summit was almost 1km away, and I had ample time to figure out what I wanted to do when I reached the top. Should I descend routes I already knew - for instance via Garnesvatnet or Mørkevatnet? In both cases, I would have a bit of road walking ahead of me, and I didn't really want that. By the time I reached Garnestua summit (7:23pm, 1h:13m after heading out from Ringstad), I was quite determined to take the shortest route down the mountain.
Ocean view
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From Garnestua, I headed straight south and found a wide gully that seemed like a good place to descend. Down in the forest, the gully offered some OK scrambling, although I could have passed most of the obstacles on the outside. The big question was if I would run into another forest nightmare section.
But I was lucky. The gully led me into an open area just above Svora, and I was able to follow open terrain all the way back to the Ringstaddalen road. And the car was only 800m away. When the hike was officially over (2 hours after heading out), I rang a few doorbells in the valley to see if the gullies had any names. The conclusion was that most of the local names had vanished over time. Still, it's good fun to ring door bells. Once past the "what? did you go up that way?" questions, it's the normal "who are you?, where are you from? where do you live, who's your neighbour and who lived in that house before you?" type of questions. He he ...
I'm almost done investigating the routes up to the Garnestua massif. The only thing left on the agenda is Haddalsura - the big boulder field leading up to Ringstadhornet. Stay tuned!
Descending Garnestua
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