Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Rjåhornet, 600m (Herøy)
Lost + found, Aug 29 & Sep 1 2009
To the main Rjåhornet page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
Lost, Aug 29 2009
Unbelievable though it was, it had stopped raining for a moment and I saw the opportunity for a dry hike. I chose to hike Rjåhornet from Aspevikvatnet - a route I hadn't done before. It didn't take long before the rain showers set in. But the rain was light and of no big concern. Halfway up the mountain, I noticed that I had forgotten to track the route on the GPS, and my camera was failing with some kind of communication with the lens type of error. Moreover, there was no path up the mountain, and the terrain was just i r r i t a t i n g. Bush and bog. WET bog...
95m from the summit, I got a clever idea and chose to climb a big rock instead of walking around it. I tossed my ice-axe ahead of me, and when I heard kling-klang-klung instead of just kling, I knew that my axe was in trouble. Sure enough, I had thrown the axe straight into a crack, and it was now well outside my reach. 10 years in the mountains, and I pull a stunt like this!
My axe is down there, somewhere
(Click for larger image)
But this was only a temporary setback. The axe has been with me for the whole decade, and we don't leave our buddies behind. And it was perhaps unavoidable; upon descent, it started p o u r i n g down.
Found, Sep 1 2009
After two days of heavy rain, it cleared up and my go-get-the-axe project was well prepared. The day before I had gone to a hardware store and bought a good old-fashioned fishing hook! Interestingly enough, I left the store with the hook and an inflatable Seahawk 3 inflatable boat. Talk about impulse shopping...
On this afternoon, I headed up Rjåhornet along the normal route from Leikong, equipped with two long poles, one short pole, 3 slings, a hook, and duct tape. Me vs. mother nature and a crack.
My primary plan was to tie the hook to a couple of slings, and fish for the axe. Within seconds, I had the axe's sling on the hook, but I lost it. I fished around a bit more, and now I had the blunt end of the axe around the hook. And this time, the grip was solid! Only one minute after initiating the rescue operation, it had come to a successful end..
Reunited!
(Click for larger image)
