Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Veirahaldet on skis, Mar 2 2012
(did not summit)
To the main Veirahaldet page (maps, pictures, other trip reports)
Our route, as seen in Google Earth
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The plan for this Friday evening was an after-dark ski-trip to Veirahaldet with Terje Øvrebø, while his family spent the evening in the Bondalseidet slopes. Veirahaldet is one of the easiest skiing tops in the Sunnmørsalpane mountain range, especially when you can take the ski-lift up to 700 meters. This would be a no-brainer. I thought...
On the way up Veirahaldet
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It didn't take long (we're talking minutes) before I got bad vibes and was actually worried that we would not make it all the way to the top. The snow was much harder than I had anticipated, and I have been to Veirahaldet on hard snow before. In the last hill, hard snow is not what you want. Terje and me agreed that the snow conditions were quite suprising.
The first task was to make it up to the ridge proper. There were a few scattered snow dunes, and we kept aiming for the nearest ones until we reached the ridge. My vibes did not have an optimistic development, and now I was more interested to see how far we got. But the view was superb!
Snøhornet - across the valley
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I found the next hill intimidating. I knew that if I fell, I would most likely not gain control with skins on, and I was quite relieved when we reached more level terrain at 1040m. The last hill (the little we saw of it) looked just as impossible as I had feared, and at 1116m, we decided to call it a day. We were less than 100 vertical meters and 300 horizontal meters away from the summit, but it was a decision that I knew I would never, ever question.
The descent was quite unpleasant until we reached the upper ski-lift. A Snowcat-looking vehicle came up the slope, leaving a perfect and soft track in its trail. The remaining 3km to the skiing centre offered most excellent skiing! Thanks to Terje for coming along!!
(We headed out 6:30pm and returned 8:23pm).
Bondaleidet - the main slope
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