Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Hildrehesten & Hesteraua, Oct 26 2008

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This Saturday, I was working, but decided to shift the hours around when I noticed sunshine outside. When was the last time we had sunshine in Ålesund? Honestly? It's been a while, I can tell you that much. I picked Hildrehesten (the Hildre horse) as the target. It would be a fairly short drive and a fairly short hike. I didn't have much faith in that the sunshine would last. It would probably start raining again in the afternoon, but if I could get to the top before the rain .. it would certainly be worth the trip.

I left the Øvre Gryta trailhead 10:30am, and observed that the sunny day had turned into a rather grey day. And in from the sea came something black. Oh well. No turning back now. The black thing turned out to be snow, and it hit Hildrehesten when I was 100m below the summit. I had chosen to hike steep up a boulder field (outside the normal route), which was a "brilliant" move, now that the snow made all the rocks slippery. But moving upwards is seldom a problem. And I would certainly not descend this boulder field!

Snow-time!
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I reached the top of Hildrehesten 11:48am, and now that I was here, I might just as well visit "Hesteraua" - the horse's ass, which I had never been on. The ass was just 700m up the road, and the weather wasn't too bad. At least while walking in the same direction as the wind blew..

By 12:05pm, I had conquered the horse's ass. The summit was a slippery affair (no pun intended), so thanks for good balance and good boots. Now it was time to face the wind, which was something quite different from walking along with it. But the wind settled as I began my descent from Hildrehesten. In return, I could enjoy a massive rain shower. I was back at the car 1:10pm, and could return to work. Very wet, but content.

Well-protected or just shy?
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