Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Liahornet on skis, Nov 1 2008


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A beautiful day

A beautiful day
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Late on this Saturday morning, I realized it was actually a sunny day, and concluded that it was time to start the 2008-09 skiing season. I decided to start with a low peak. It would be very cold and windy in the higher mountains, and besides, given my late start, there was only time for a low peak. I chose Liahornet as my target for the day, tossed the skis into the car and left Ålesund.

I had expected that I might have to carry the skis a while, but then again - Stordalen region was not the coastline and there would be more snow here. I hadn't even looked at the map before I left, so I had no idea about where I should head out from. Well, perhaps from Stavseng, but when I got there, I decided to keep driving towards Norddalsfjorden and look for side roads.

I soon found one. If I could just get some "help" through the thickest forest, I didn't really care where the road ended. I parked the car along the highway, and by 11:55am, I was on my way - on skis. There was hardly any snow on the road, but it got slightly better when I met the road from Liabygda. At the Nakkesætra junction, I turned right and followed this road for a little while. But then I changed my mind and returned to the Liabygda road. I skied up to the Liasætra cabins. A guy was sitting on his porch, and I looked forward to a quick chat. But when he saw me, he went inside.

From Liasætra, I followed the summer path upwards. Given the small amount of snow, I could see the painted rocks and small sticks that marked the path. The skiing conditions were terrible. I would have thought, ever since the first snow fell, that the snow had gone through a certain process, but no. The snow was still of almost powdery quality, and just below were grass and rock. The most annoying part was when the skis (frequently) got stuck in roots below the snow, and it became evident that this would be one of the worst ski-trips ever.

 

On the way to Liahornet (right)

On the way to Liahornet (right)
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Ref. the above picture, I was a bit confused about where I was heading. I saw two tops in the distance. The rightmost top seemed farther away than the leftmost top, which I knew was Blåtinden (1338m). So where was Liahornet? I then noticed a hill in front of these tops that just had to be Liahornet. Good! Not too far to go.

But when I got to this top, it wasn't Liahornet. Liahornet was the top to the right, and while the distance was only 500m, I sighed. True, it was a beautiful day, albeit windy and cold. But the skiing was just agonizing. I both looked forward to - and dreaded the descent. I knew that the skis would be in for a bad day.

 

A cold and windy day

A cold and windy day
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I reached the summit 2:12pm, after skiing 5,5km and gaining approx. 700 vertical meters. I performed the regular rituals (pictures and GPS stuff), put some warm clothes on and was on my way down 5 minutes later. Within two minutes, the sound of skis vs. rock resulted in some bad language. Sorry about that. Bad language doesn't belong in the mountains..

The descent got just as cumbersome as I had feared, and there were more skis vs. rock sounds. In the end, I stopped caring. I skied all the way back to the car, even if I had promised myself on the way up, that I should walk the road back to the car. I was back at the car 3:25pm, and the mood was all good again. After all, any trip, however cumbersome, is a good trip. As long as there are no injuries, that is.

Pictures

The pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 300D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6

 
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To Liasætra

0. Trip tracks 1. The trailhead 2. Nice light 3. On the forest road, looking back 4. Joining the road from Liabygda 5. On the road to Liasætra 6. Nakkesætra junction 7. Liasætra 8. Liahornet trail sign 9. View from Liasætra

To Liahornet

10. On the path from Liasætra 11. View from the west ridge 12. Stranda and Ørsta peaks in the distant 13. Jolgrøhornet massif 14. Passing 730m 15. The mountain is windy 16. Liahornet ahead 17. Looking down on the west ridge 18. Liahornet summit

Wide-angle view from Liahornet

19. Wide-angle view from Liahornet

Other pics from from Liahornet

20. Jolgrøhornet and Storbotnshornet massifs 21. Torvløysa and Skorene 22. Stordalen 23. Snowdrift

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