Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Sollia, June 30 2006

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The high point on Gurskøya was overdue, but on this *extremely* hot afternoon, it was finally to be. Even with all the car windows wide open, the dog had his mouth open on the drive from Ulsteinvik to Moldtudalen. There was no signs pointing to the valley, and I had to ask around at the local grocery store. I also bought a can of "mosquito killing-stuff", which came in very handy during the hike.

The dog ("Troll") and I left the Moldtudalen trailhead 16:15PM. The gravel wasn't easy to walk on, and Troll executed his "sit-down" routine and I put him in the backpack. A "storm" of flies quickly surrounded us. I put down the backpack, stepped away and loaded myself with the can I had bought. Breathe, gas, move away, breathe, gas, move away, etc.

I passed Lake Mørkevatnet and entered Litledalen where Troll was told to walk. Sollia seemed mighty close, but looks are deceiving. We reached the top 17:25PM, 1h:10m after leaving the trailhead. My camera lens was dirty from yesterday's hike, and I had tried to clean it with a drop or two of water. The lens became foggy and almost useless. The panoramas were taken by the 50mm and the 300m lenses, which explains the lack of the usual wide-angle panorama.

I was not in the typical hiking mood, and found the walk a bit boring. I decided to walk across Hestefjellet and Selsteinen, avoiding taking the same route back down. I didn't have the patience to follow the normal round on the east side of Kjerringvatnet, and descended directly down to the lake. I didn't care about the loss of vertical gain. The hike up to Hestefjellet was tiresome. Troll objected to taking a different route back down and I had to carry him from Sollia. Close to Hestefjellet, he resumed walking.

We passed the Hestefjellet cairn 18:05PM, and sadly enough, I started thinking about the ferry from Hareid. Initially, I expected I would reach the 20:30PM ferry (they only run once per hour after 20:00PM), but I saw an opportunity for the 19:30PM ferry. This meant I had to hurry a bit, and since Troll was slowly moving down from Hestefjellet, I had to rush him a bit.

We passed Selsteinen cairn 18:25PM, and I had 18:45PM as the "back-at-the-car time". Poor dog, as I rushed him down from Selsteinen in partly rugged terrain (seen from his point of view). Back at the gravel road, we started running while I cursed myself for thinking about the ferry. We were back at the car 18:38PM, and I had time to take the boots off and change clothes. We reached the 19:30PM ferry by a margin of 10 minutes, and were back in Ålesund 20:30PM.

Pictures from the June 30 2006 trip

To Sollia

1. Moldtudalen trailhead (259KB) 2. Troll wants a lift (418KB) 3. Passing Selsteinen (326KB) 4. Lake Mørkevatnet (332KB) 5. Sollia ahead (283KB) 6. Sollia summit (400KB)

50mm panoramas, 2 parts

7. 50mm panorama from Sollia, part 1/2 (1634KB) 8. 50mm panorama from Sollia, part 2/2 (1072KB)

Other summit pics

9. Sædalen (280KB) 10. Ulsteinvik (563KB) 11. Skoratinden (170KB) 12. Skåla (not the one in Loen) (154KB) 13. Sandegga (153KB) 14. Eidskyrkja (118KB) 15. Zoom panorama from Sollia (956KB) 16. Troll on Sollia (208KB) 17. Zoom panorama from Sollia (768KB) 18. The summit logbook (144KB)

Descent via Hestefjellet and Selsteinen

19. Lake Mørkevatnet (205KB) 20. Passing Hestefjellet (227KB) 21. Sollia seen from Hestefjellet (1518KB) 22. Passing Selsteinen (246KB) 23. Hestefjellet seen from Selsteinen (828KB) 24. Back in Moldtudalen (285KB)

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