Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Jønshornet, Randers Topp, Mohns Topp, Slingsbys Topp, Ytstenestinden, Molladalstindane

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Jønshornet roundtrip, July 8 2006

This route is described on the main Molladalstindane page.

Trip report, July 8 2006

It wasn't "supposed" to be brilliant weather this Saturday, but when I woke up, it was. The first thing that entered my mind was "Jønshornet". I had been looking at this mountain EVERY SINGLE DAY since I moved to Ålesund. I had decided to wait until the snow had melted, and now, the time had come. The neighbour had planned to work on the house all day, so my dog "Troll" would keep him and his dog, company. I looked very much forward to a nice hike and a light backpack.

Jønshornet

Ascent:

I took the 10:10AM ferry to Festøya, and was on my way towards Gamlestøylen 10:45PM. As I had been to Festøykollen earlier in spring, I knew exactly where to park and where to go. The long ridge up to Rametinden was .. a bit annoying .. as all I wanted was to get onto Jønshornet. The phone rang a couple of times, but apart from this 5-10 minute delay, I had walked non-stop (except for pictures) to Rametinden, which I arrived 12:25PM.

After 10 minutes and a round of pictures on top, I noticed that the ørsta mountain had turned grey. The mountains on the other side of Hjørundfjorden were still sunny, and I wondered what I had in store. The answer came along within the next 10 minutes, when the light rain sat in. The light rain persisted and I had to secure all of the electric equipment (camera, phone, etc.) in plastic bags. In the large boulder area, I lost sight of the path and climbed across some very huge rocks. For the first time, I got to practice "knife-edge scrambling", where I climbed "butt-out" with my hands on top of the ridge (which was actually a giant rock). Big fun, it was.

The next obstacle was a long step with a rope hanging down. I climbed up on the side (not using the rope) and it took me a few seconds to position my arms and legs so I could exit this obstacle in a graceful manner. The upper ridge was fun. I stayed close to the edge all the way, although the track went further down to my right. Four young men climbed on top of Jønshornet just as I got the summit in sight. It had been hidden in clouds for a while, but now everything opened up. They were on their way out by the time I arrived the summit (13:30PM). Not very strange, since a couple of them were wearing shorts(!)

Molladalstindane

Descent

Now I had the summit all to myself and celebrated with an apple. It had temporarily stopped raining, and everything was just fine. I noticed two hikes who had just come up from Molladalen. They seemed very undecisive at the ridge leading towards Jønshornet, but I assumed they were taking a break. The original plan was to descend via Molladalen, but as it started raining again, I decided to take the same route back down. But against my will, my body led me towards the Molladalen route, and I surrendered to this "other side of me", that took me a bit by surprise. 13:50PM, I was on my way down to the Molladalen route.

The first part of the ridge was fairly easy scrambling. But then I reached a section that just had to be dry if I should attempt to climb it with my no-sole shoes from 2005 (yes, I exhaust one pair per year). The rock was far from dry, and I aborted the ridge traverse. Instead, I chose to descend down to the glacier, which was mixed soft and hard snow. The soft snow collapsed on contact (and I had no clue what was under). The hard snow was slippery. In best case, I would end up further down the glacier, but in worst case (which was also the probable case, here) I would end up in one of the cracks (not crevasses nor bergschrunds, but holes because of snowmelt) Fortunately, I had decided to bring along both crampons and axe. With a much better grip and a good tool for evaluating the snow, I traversed safely across the glacier and entered the ridge at the point where the path from Jønshornsrenna tops out.

I caught up with the two hikers, who were discouraged from proceeding. They probably made the right decision, and besides, it was pouring down now. I continued rather quickly down towards Barstaddalen and reached the car 15:50PM. I had enjoyed the walk along the road in sunshine, but it started raining once I reached the car. Along the road, I also met the four young men who had descended my ascent route. They told me they did not find the rope I had told them about. But they did pass across Rametinden, which means they must have stayed closer to Oksegylvatnet upon descent. Back at Festøya, I only had to wait a couple of minutes for the 16:10PM ferry.

What a fine trip! I'll be back.