Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Nihusen first hike, Jan 1 2006

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The best way of taking on a new year, is to visit a NEW mountain. OK, a subjective opinion perhaps, but this was the mindset when I woke up (fairly late) the first day of the new year. It was an excellent day, but I was way too late for a high mountain. I figured that Grøtshornet (663m) by Vatne would be a convenient project for me and my little four-legged friend named "Troll".

The project faced a challenge when I discovered the toll booth between highway E39 and Skodje. The challenge was based on that I hadn't brought any cash. I put Grøtshornet on the "later" list, and continued along highway E39. The new plan was to visit Liafjellet (528m) above Ørskogvika, but along the way I discovered an alternative road leading to Skodje. Since I had to pass Skodje, I decided to visit my friend (and colleague) Torill Berg, whom I hiked Hornindalsrokken with, last year.

The new plan was to hike Nihusen, and hope that Torill would come along. She agreed to, although she already had been to the top early this morning. We drove to her parents at Indreberg and headed up from there. Now that I had company, Troll put his "stubborn business" aside, and ran up the forest road, trying to cover both sides of the road at the same time. To some degree of "bitterness", I realized that if Torill hadn't come along, he would have been sitting at the beginning of the forest road with his "If you think I'm gonna walk, you're WRONG!" face.

Nihusen is Torill's mountain, and she visits the top a couple of hundred times per year. Nihusen is to Torill like Ulriken was to me, back in Bergen. I had a feeling that she enjoyed showing me the mountain. A snow-vehicle of some sort had been going up and down the forest, which made walking easy. We had left Indreberg 12:20PM and reached the summit 13:15PM. The views were just excellent. I had been spending the recent days annotating panoramas from other mountains I had hiked between Christmas and New Year's Eve, and had a fairly good overview of the mountains that could be seen from Nihusen. Torill acknowledged my "homework", and I felt that I was a worthy Nihusen visitor.

We took a different route back down, and met several people along the way, heading upwards. We were back at Indreberg 14:20PM, and Troll had walked all the way. A very nice hike was over. Many thanks to Torill for showing me the routes up and down Nihusen. She is fortunate to have a mountain with such great views just outside her doorstep.