Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Storskorka

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Storskorka from Øvstedalen, Sep 16 2007

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

Bad dog!

As expected, it was raining when I got up 7:30AM this Sunday morning. It wasn't just raining, it was raining sideways. After having touched on some of the elements the day before, I was actually very motivated to go out in the rain and visit a new top. But after opening the front door, this motivation vanished as quickly as petrol from a mountain lover's gas tank. Heck, I even think the dog was peeing on the stairs. He didn't lift his leg, but had this silly look and never went outside.

Swedish problems

I went to the computer and spent some quality hours working on my good friend Petter's latest Aerials. Some Swedish mountains gave me a hard time regarding identification, and it was suddenly noon and the dog wanted to pee again. I opened the door, and noticed that it was a brilliant, excellent and just outstanding day outside.

Move, soldier! Move!

A mountain man acts quickly. Within minutes, the backpack and the dog was in the car. And I was on my way to .. somewhere. The destination wasn't quite clear yet. I decided to head to the Tresfjord region. If it started raining, I could always find myself a lower top. If the weather held up, then I would go to ... yup, Storskorka. I had only 6 tops yet to do in Vestnes municipality, Storskorka being the lowest.

The flags at the local food store concerned me slightly. They stood flat out and weren't moving. OK, so there's a breeze, I figured. Good thing that I have proper clothing. Then my stommach told me; "Hey dude - you forgot breakfast". OK, but Storskorka is only a 600m mountain (Boy, was I wrong), and the whole trip up and down is only two hours. Tops! "OK", the stommach responded. "But cook me something nice once back home"

Rrrrrrright...

I didn't have a map, and I hadn't really prepared as much as I should. I tried to use the GPS to find a proper trailhead. The name Rypdalssætra came up, and I said to myself - "You know, I think I heard that name before. I think that's where we ought to go".

So I got on this gravel road, signed Rypdalssætra, but the road became a bit too muddy for my small car. So I parked early on, and focused on the upside - the dog getting some exercise. I left the trailhead 13.40PM, and 1Km later, the road ended. I could see a narrow forest path ahead of me. So did the dog. He sat down and let me know that I was a fool for thinking he would walk that path. So with a Norwegian Troll in the backpack, I headed towards the Fossåna river. The plan was to cross it and to follow the path on the other side.

But I know a raging river when I hear it. The sound of continuous thunder makes me .. edgy. And just as I had begun to fear, the river could not be crossed. I faced two options - head down and look for alternatives, or just head off-trail up along the river? I chose option #2.

Evil birch and STRONG winds!

The ascent up along the river was easier than one could expect. The forest was quite open and the view to the river was just outstanding. The problems didn't occur until I was in the valley, and faced a "sea" of low birch that truly was of the unpleasant kind. This is so wrong! Juniper is evil. Birch is good! Generally speaking...

And there was still no way of crossing the river.

But finally, at 430m elevation, I found a sequence of rocks that took me across the river. Now I could focus on the ascent. The weather was still holding up, but the wind was STRONG! Galce force, surely, as I wasn't always able to decide my own moves. Fortunately, the wind wasn't very cold.

The ascent

From distance, it looked like the hillside had been cut by a lawn mower. Not so. Once again, I had to fight evil birch until I got on the very edge of the flank. The exposure was certainly overwhelming, but far more attractive than the bush. As long as there was something to hold on to when the gusts came along, I would be fine.

I like steep ascents. I feel I am making progress. 15:07PM - 500m, 15:19PM - 600m, 15:28PM - 700m, 15:40PM - 800m, and finally 15:45PM - 861m. That's not hilariously fast, but one is carrying a dog, and pictures has to be taken. Earlier in the day, I suspect this mountain had a lot more snow, but most of it had probably melted during the day. I hadn't brought my zoom lens, which was a good idea. Only a wide-angle lens is appropriate on this top, with higher mountains all around.

We found some sort of shelter behind the high point, and this was a very nice place to be. The dog was not happy as I hadn't brought his lunch-box. And "I'm hungry too, old sport!" didn't make a strong impression.

The descent

Upon descent, I encircled the summit at least 10 times, looking for my lens-cap, only to find that it was on the dog's head (he was in the backpack). How it ended up there, and why it didn't fall off during the 10 rounds will be the eternal question. In any case, the descent was much swifter than the ascent. 16:00PM - 800m, 16:04PM - 700m, 16:08PM - 600m, 16:13PM - 500m. And soon we were on the forest path.

The path was way too rocky for my soon-14-year old dog, and I carried him until we reached the cabin at 380m elevation. From there on, he walked all the way down to the quarry. As I didn't know how I could cross the river, I expected that I would have to get on the Øvstedalen road. But at the quarry, I discovered an old tractor road that crossed the river on an old, wooden bridge. I then had to follow this forest road 0.5Km until I reached the forest path that I was on earlier in the day. And finding this path was a stroke of pure luck. The GPS signals are quite unreliable in the forest, but by 17:20PM, we were back at the trailhead.

The good weather window was surely closing. Clouds were moving in from the south, and later in the evening, things were back to normal for this autumn (read: miserable). But a warm thanks to the Weather management team for this window of opportunity!