Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Kleivdalsfjellet and Roaldshornet from Svartevatnet, Oct 22 2006

For Information, maps, trailhead and route descriptions, click HERE.

Trip report, Oct 22 2006

This Sunday was the day after our very nice hike to Nonstinden. Anthony was going on his walk across Rånahalvøya, while Petter and me were heading towards Ørsta. Plan A was Vassdalstinden, provided the weather was OK. Plan B was Saudehornet, an easy walk even in fog and rain. We took the 08:40AM ferry from Magerholm, and dropped Anthony off in Megardsdalen valley. Then, Petter and I drove down to Hundeidvika and waited for the ferry to Festøya.

The ferry didn't depart until 10:10AM, so we had to wait about an hour. 10:09AM, the ticket guy came and told us that they were missing the engine guy. They hadn't heard from him, either, and had no viable plan for departure. Plan C, I proposed to Petter, was to hike Roaldshornet. His "bonus" would be a peak with a primary factor of 697m, and my bonus (I had been to Roaldshornet earlier in 2006) would be a visit to Kleivdalsfjellet. Petter was quite happy with this plan, and 10:45AM, we were ready to go from out Strandafjellet trailhead.

The fog was THICK, but there was a good (and very popular) trail running up the mountainside, and it was easy to follow. We figured that as long as it didn't rain, the weather was just fine for hiking. Another bonus awaited us at 1000m elevation, as we popped above the fog. Not in my wildest dreams, would I have expected this to happen.

We passed across Kleivdalsfjellet, but decided to visit the high point (a bit outside the path we were following) upon descent. After stopping for pictures, we proceeded down the ridge leading towards Roaldshornet. We chatted with a couple of hunters along the way, and reached Roaldshornet 12:40PM, 2 hours after leaving the trailhead. The trailsign says 3 hours, so we've probably kept a pace a bit above the average.

The views were nice, although the sky was grey and the mountains dark. Interesting to see only the high tops peek above the clouds, with no other "distractions" around. We quickly identified Nonstinden, which we hiked the day before. I took some long panoramas with the wide-angle lens zoomed in to 200mm (which I never do), and realised that I would have some work ahead of me, once back at the computer.

We stayed for 15 minutes, and headed back towards Kleivdalsfjellet. I could see one hiker coming up along the ski-lift. Besides him, there were no signs of other hikers. The hunters we had passed seemed surprised to see hikers on a day such as this. But it all comes back to "no effort, no gain", and I'm quite sure that there would have been many more hikers up here, if they knew how the weather would be up here.

We passed Kleivdalsfjellet 13:30PM. With (almost) identical GPS devices, Petter and I never cease wondering why our devices sometimes show completely different elevations on the same spot. My GPS reported that Kleivdalsfjellet was 1158m (+/- 2,7m), while Petter's GPS reported 1152m. Officially, the mountain height is 1154m. Petter's GPS reported 1230m (on the ground) on Roaldshornet, while mine reported 1234m on top of the summit cairn (1,5m high). In any case, Kleivdalsfjellet's primary factor would be above 90m, and belong the "almost an independent mountain" category. That's only theory, though. Kleivdalsfjellet did stand out as quite separate top on this mountain massif.

We took a direct route from Kleivdalsfjellet and joined the path a bit down the mountain. In light rain, we reached the car 14:20PM. It rained more and more on the way home to Ålesund, and back home, I wouldn't even had considered hiking Sukkertoppen on a day like this. Half an hour later, the neighbour knocked on the door and handed over a fairly wet, and a slightly miserable dog that had been walking around in the (wet) Dyrkorn area. Many thanks to my neighbour who had taken care of Troll while we were roaming around in the Sunnmøre mountains this week-end.