Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Røddalshorn east top, Feb 9 2010
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Røddalshorn and Leikongeidet trailhead
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I woke up this morning to a frozen car (ref. the trunk) and assumed that skiing conditions would be horrible. But in the afternoon, the beautiful weather made me put the skis in the car and get on the road. I decided to ski Røddalshorn from Leikongeidet. A short trip, which was OK in case the conditions were as I expected.
Man, how wrong I was. The snow was absolutely perfect. It was just a question of how high I could get before hitting wind-packed snow. Time would tell, and seldom has breaking a trail been more fun...
With Sunnmørsalpane as background..
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My late departure (4:50pm) meant that it would be dark by the time I descended the mountain. Thus, I chose a route that would be easy to descend with a headlamp as the only light. A small group of skiers were on their way to Sollia. It would get dark for them too. The colours kept changing as the trip progressed, but I had a feeling I would get a very red horizon by the time I reached the summit. And I was right...
Arriving on Røddalshorn
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The (short) trip to Røddalshorn took 50 minutes (400 vertical meters and many stops for pictures), and the snow never got wind-packed. True, it was a bit icy above 500m, but that was quite alright. In other words, I could look forward to some nice skiing down the mountain. Because of the darkness, I had to take it a bit easy, but I was back at Leikongeidet 8 minutes after leaving the summit. All in all, a well spent hour..
Red horizon seen from Røddalshorn
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