Norwegian Mountains, Sogn og Fjordane
Heimste Skeisnipa (1110m), June 3 2012
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Skeisnipa tops and Supphellebreen glacier
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June 2 2012
After all these years, I finally got an opportunity to get an "inside look" of the beautiful village of Fjærland. The main occasion was that Anne and me were invited to the celebration of Olav Orheim's 70th birthday. Anne and Olav's history goes a long way back - to the early days of Bremuseet (the glacier museum) in Fjærland.
Olav Orheim (born 1942) is a Norwegian glaciologist. He served as director of the Norwegian Polar Institute from 1993 to 2005. He was appointed associate professor in glaciology at the University of Bergen in 1989. Orheim was a central participant in the establishment of the research station Troll in Queen Maud Land in Antarctica. Source: Wikipedia.
It was only natural that Anne invited me to the glacier museum prior to the party. The visit was quite interesting and the highlight was of course Ivo Caprino's fantastic movie from Jostedalsbreen!
Video show at the glacier museum
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Then we moved over to Olav's house and had a couple of nice hours with drinks and speeches on the lawn. I can't say for sure, but the number of invitees counted somewhere between 70 and 80. The sun was shining albeit the wind was a bit cold. I was wondering what Plan B was, in case it was raining. The house would definitely not fit everyone inside. It seemed there wasn't any plan B. I was told that this weekend in June was statically sunny. Period. I was blown away from this optimism...
Afterwards, we moved over to Mundal hotel (my first visit) and relaxed until dinner. At 7pm we all gathered to hear Olav tell us about the history of the hotel. I found the brief very interesting and enjoyed myself. Then we moved onto the dinner room where we enjoyed a wonderful 3-course meal and a very enjoyable cultural element by Per Christian Ellefsen - one of the most renowned and respected Norwegian actors today.
After the dinner, there was coffee. Somehow, the late-evening coffee is always dangerous. Or could it be that thing that some people refer to as avec? I can't say for sure, but it got pretty late.
Beautiful Fjærland
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June 3 2012
I've had better mornings. But although my head was spinning around, I was hungry, and I guess that is a good sign. At breakfast, Per Christian showed us beautiful pictures and video clips from Friday's Josten-på-tvers ski-trip. A trip from Befringsdalen to Supphelledalen, led by Olav. Unfortunately, neither Anne nor me had the time to participate on this trip.
After breakfast, Anne and me agreed that a hike would do us good and we decided to visit Heimste Skeisnipa (1110m). There's nothing like an 1100 meter ascent the next morning after a late party...
Unfortunately, the weather was nowhere as nice as the day before, but on the other side - it wasn't pouring down either!
Skeisnipa
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We drove to the Skarestad farm and asked a) if there was a path (we've heard rumours about one) and b) if we could park there. Permission to park was granted, but we didn't feel too comfortable about the explanation of the route. We headed out 11:30am and were told to follow the forest road, but as it soon forked - we went the wrong way.
Being the optimists we are, we decided to scramble the steep forest, expecting to join the ridge route sooner or later. And after 220 steep and awkward vertical meters, we saw red paint on a tree. Yeah! I was in a surprisingly good shape, despite the late morning hours and that -avec- stuff. Anne felt a bit tired, but was always smiling whenever I looked at her. Attagirl!
Off-trail in the forest
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The route up the ridge was very enjoyable. It was raining lightly, but it was no big deal. We expected it to snow higher up, but as our trip was limited to Heimste Skeisnipa, we didn't worry about the - seemingly more hostile - conditions up in the higher mountains. Instead, we fully enjoyed the fantastic view towards Fjærlandsfjorden.
Fjærlandsfjorden
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We reached the top of Skeisnipa 2:10pm and it was a light gale up there. Oh yes - it was snowing too! No wonder as it was only June 3rd! If the weather had been (much) better, we could have discussed if we wanted to go all the way to Fremste Skeisnipa (and possibly further), but as things were, we were quite happy to return the way we came. We only stayed on top for pictures and then headed back down. I felt like I was walking close to the sky. Magic...
Descending from Skeisnipa
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We expected that we would be able to follow the path all the way down to Skarestad, but we lost it shortly after passing the Lindesvoi viewpoint (approx. 150 meters). The trees with the paint had all fallen, one by one. In fact, it seemed impossible to even cross this section of the forest, so we kept a southwest course, parallel to the area of destruction. Then we came across a trail that took us back to Skarestad, but I never found out where this trail began.
The Lindesvoi viewpoint
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We returned to Skarestad 3:54pm - close to 4,5 hours after heading out. I now had a 3-hour drive to Gurskøya ahead of me, and as the road along Austefjorden is (for the time being) closed, I prayed for the mental strength to endure two ferries...
