Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

West ridge round trip, Oct 16 2008


To the main Nihusen page.

 

West ridge route

West ridge route (Click for larger image)

 

On this Thursday afternoon, I decided to hike Nihusen's west ridge. I had done the Indreberg route a number of times, but having only done one route on this mountain, simply wasn't good enough. I tried to get my friend Torill (she lives at the foot of the mountain) to come along, knowing she hadn't done the west ridge before. But her focus was on the new calf that had just been born on the Indreberg farm. In my book, that's a valid excuse for skipping a hike!

I left the trailhead (just south of Stette) 3:48pm. I headed up the forest road and caught up with a guy and his rifle. He nodded towards my camera, and said something like "so we're both here for the shoot". "Yeah", I replied - "I hope my luck is better than yours". I would be very lucky if I got a picture of a beautiful deer. That guy would be very lucky if he could kill one. It's that simple. And it's that brutal.

In a somewhat less good mood, I continued my hike up the forest road. The forest road ended at 260m elevation, and a forest path continued from there. My usual jolly good mood got restored, little by little. I truly, deeply enjoy being in new places. Seeing things from different angles. Always expecting the chest of gold around the next corner. I reached the top of Nihusen 4:38pm,and left a "Hello" to Torill in the visitor register.

 

Ålesund region seen from Nihusen

Ålesund region seen from Nihusen (Click for larger image)

 

After taking pictures, I decided to descend via the southwest ridge (via Løhammaren). I wasn't sure where to go, in order to locate the ridge. It's hard to get an overview in this forest. After descending a bit on the road to Indreberg, I understood that I was going in the wrong direction. I went back up a bit, then headed off-trail through the forest until I reached the forest road to Grindvika. After 30 seconds on this road, I got on the southwest ridge and followed a track down the ridge.

The track led me into Straumsdalen (the valley between the west and southwest ridge) before it took me up to Løhammaren. A number of paths went in all sorts of directions. Some manmade, and some from deer who had the luck or wisdom to avoid men with rifles. On the final section of this ridge, I was off-trail and ended up on a road that my GPS said was highway RV661.

"No way, Jose". This wasn't RV661. The GPS seemed to be accurate, so the only explanation was that the map was wrong (and it was). I didn't really know where I was, but the natural direction would be northbound.  After a little while, I joined RV661 and was back at the trailhead a few minutes later, 6pm. The next Nihusen project is the steep north side, from Neskjosen. With Torill. And after the last calf has arrived.

 

The west ridge trailhead is approx. 2km after you've passed the Straumsbua toll booth, on the way to Vatne.

Pictures from the Oct 16 2008 hike

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(Full size images)

To Nihusen

0. Trip tracks 1. The trailhead, south of Stette 2. On the forest road 3. End of the forest road 4. Nihusen ahead

Wide-angle view from Nihusen

5. Wide-angle view from Nihusen

Zoom views from Nihusen

6. Zoom view from Nihusen 7. Zoom view from Nihusen 8. Zoom view from Nihusen 9. Skodje seen from Nihusen 10. Zoom view from Nihusen 11. Haram tops seen from Nihusen 12. Ålesund region seen from Nihusen 13. Ålesund region seen from Nihusen

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