Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal |
Vikesandhornet (749m) from Norddalen, Jan 28 2012 |
To the main Høgenipa/Vikesandfjellet page (maps, pictures, other trip reports) My route, as seen in Google Earth
While Anne was on her way to Argentina to conquer Aconcagua, I had slightly lower ambitions - heading for Syvden and Vikesandfjellet. For various reasons, I had to find a mountain (preferably a new one) fairly close to home - and Vikesandfjellet was the perfect candidate. I'm not sure why I threw my skis into the car in the very last minute, because I had absolutely no faith in that I would be skiing today. It was more spring than winter outside. But as I hadn't been to Syvden lately, I figured it would make sense to bring the skis along. Just in case... My trailhead for the day would be the same that Anne and me went to in Februrary 2010, when we had an unforgettable ski-trip to Høgenipa. And to my huge surprise, the forest road from Landsverk in Norddalen had snow! Today would be a skiing day, and by 11:20am, I was on my way upwards. It was certainly not powder snow after tractor traffic, and the descent would get rugged. But I was NOT complaining!
On the way to Vikesandfjellet - on skis!
I met 3 skiers at the trailhead who said they were heading for Høgenipa. Knowing how icy the snow was up in the mountains, I had my doubts that they would make it up the final hill. Vikesandfjellet is much less steep, and should not be a problem whatsoever. Time would show. Above the forest, I noticed two more skiers - and my guess was that they were heading for the cabin by Lake Tryggesteinsvatnet. Or - they could be heading for Høgenipa via Trollholegga. It was hard to tell. I was also considering Høgenipa after Vikesandfjellet, but the snow was so icy that I wouldn't find it safe to try to summit without crampons or an ice-axe. Nope - I would settle for Vikesandfjellet and be content. At 12:42pm, I reached the top.
Arriving on Vikesandfjellet
It was indeed a short day in the mountains, so I decided to hike a local mountain after returning to Gurskøya. But right now, I had a new peak in the bag - on skis even, so I was quite satisfied. It was snowing lightly, but it was hard to tell if it would pass or turn into a snowfall. I decided to head back down. The descent - on ice - was rough and I stopped at the Høgenakken viewpoint to a) count my teeth and b) get a good overview of Norddalen. I'm definitely a Syvden and Vanylven fan, and the snow seemed to pass. And - I was as seriously missing my girlfriend...
Norddalen view from Høgenakken
The trip down the forest road was quite smooth (the snow had not been subjected to the wind in the forest) and I returned to Norddalen (1:14pm) with a big smile on my face (even if the last 100 vertical meters were a bit rough - thanks to a tractor..). The time was 1:22pm when I joined RV652 in Syvden, and it was 8 minutes until the ferry left from Koparneset. This was completely doable though bending the traffic rules a little bit, but since I'm a law abiding citizen, I chose to take it easy and I arrived at Koparneset 1:33pm - with my law abiding smile on my face, completely happy with waiting 27 minutes until the next ferry departed. But there was never any 2pm ferry. Lunch break! |
The pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 550D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6
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To Vikesandfjellet
Wide-angle view from Vikesandfjellet
Descent
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