Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Jolgrøhornet on skis, Feb 18 2006
To the main Jolgrøhornet page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
On the way to Jolgrøhornet
(Click for larger image)
More than one month had passed, since I skied Blåskjerdingen and Urfjellet with my friend Petter. A promising weather forecast made Petter again book tickets to Ålesund, but the weather forecast let him down once the tickets were ordered. Still, we wanted to make the most of it, and figured that Jolgrøhornet would be a good ski-trip, even if the weather conditions weren't all that great.
We left the Stavseng trailhead 10:20AM. My dog "Troll" walked a little bit on the forest road towards Ringsetsætra, but hit the backpack as soon as we put the skis on. The forest road was long and perhaps a bit boring, but it provided a very convenient access to the mountain.
It was snowing light, and the light was quite flat. I hoped there wouldn't be too much wind on the mountain, as the sight of a glaciated dog is always a sorry sight. We chose a steep ascent route in order to gain the ridge that would take us up the mountain, but once we were on the ridge, there were no further obstacles. It was simply a mountain that was good for skiing!
Troll whined most of the way up the mountain. Incredibly annoying! I knew he was whining because he wasn't allowed to follow Petter, but it was simply too much snow. Try explaining that to a dog...
After having passed Vardabakkane (1100m), we ran into the fog that hid the summit. Visibility on our way up the final hill was extremely low, but we picked a good route that didn't cause any extra heartbeats. 12:20PM, we were standing on top of Jolgrøhornet. I could see Petter and the cairn, but nothing else. The notion of a "familiar scenario" came to mind. Ref. Glitregga, Onen, Storklumpen, and many more tops..
With low visibility and flat light, following tracks is a big bonus. It didn't take long before we were back at Vardabakkane and had better visibility. The snow was great, and we could let the skis flow. Troll was let out of the backpack and ran while we traversed below Jolgrøeggene. Skiing was more difficult down towards Ringsetsætra, as the snow was more "rugged". However, skiing from Ringsetsætra was a pure delight, and halfway down the forest, Troll was able to run the remaining distance back to the trailhead.
We descended the mountain in one hour and were back at the trailhead 13:30PM. We didn't see much up there, but agreed that the trip was a good one.
