Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Blåhorna
Fremste (1478m) & Heimste (1354m) Blåhornet on skis from Strandadalen, Apr 4 2010
To the main Blåhorna page (maps,
route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
The route up Fjørstaddalen
(Click for larger image)
I had a standing invitation from
Svein Myhre to join him on a trip to
Blåhorna - two mountains tops fairly close to Ålesund, which I - for some
unknown reason - never managed to visit during my 3 years in that city. But on
this early weekend in April, I wanted to make the trip. Anne Rudsengen
was on a visit from Sogndal, and as the weather was beautiful she wanted to go skiing in the Sunnmøre alps. I called Svein, and although he had been up there 12 days earlier, he
decided to join in. Also on the team was Erling Juul. We would pick
up Erling on our way to the Ørsneset - Sykkylven ferry. Anne and I had to leave
Gurskøy
quite early in the morning to reach the 8:20 ferry from Ørsneset, but the upside
was that we got a magnificent sunrise from Hareid.
Sunrise
(Click for larger image)
We met up with Svein in Stranda,
drove to the trailhead at Fram-Fjørstad and were on our way up the mountain
9:37am. After low temperatures during the night, the snow was still frozen.
Quite practical upon ascent, but we hoped the sun would burn off the hard crust
while we were on the mountain. Scattered clouds could possibly cheat us out
of a
perfect skiing day. Time would show.
After rising above the forest, we
could enjoy the two Blåhorna tops above us. We passed the Heimfjørstadsætra with
the mighty Emdalstindane
as background. Strandadalen is indeed beautiful, and by the end of the day, I
would have all of the more prominent Strandalen tops in the bag.
Heimfjørstadsætra and Emdalstindane
(Click for larger image)
As we crossed
Tverrelva river (on snow) we crossed an avalanche from Fremste Blåhornet.
Spring avalanches are quite normal, but the length of it was quite unusual. That
said, the preceding warm weather period had also been quite unusual.
The trip up Fremste
Blåhornet's northwest slopes was a long plod, but the summit came closer
and closer by the minute. Based on the (astounding) number of S's and figures of
eight, it was evident that quite a number of skiers had been up here lately. It
would not be the day for signatures...
Not exactly virgin snow
(Click for larger image)
12:17pm
- 2h:40m after leaving the trailhead, we stood on top of Fremste Blåhornet. Holy
cow - what a view! I should have been quite used to views like this by now, but it blows me away
every time. There was an odd installation on the summit, but we couldn't quite
figure out what it was. Already before heading out, we had agreed to visit
Heimste Blåhornet too, but first - a well-deserved break.
On Fremste Blåhornet
(Click for larger image)
Because of the
clouds (hence the absence of sunshine), we had a somewhat bumpy ride down
Fremste Blåhornet's northwest ridge. But it was still great fun. On the way up
to Heimste Blåhornet, we could see a small dot - moving in the direction of
Fremste Blåhornet. That was Arngeir
- a colleague of mine. We wanted to meet up with him, of course, but he'd
better hurry up as we were almost on the summit.
We reached Heimste
Blåhornet 1:16pm, and enjoyed complementary views - especially
towards Stranda. We hung around for a while - just enjoying the day, the
company and the view.
Anne of Heimste Blåhornet
(Click for larger image)
Arngeir was making progress, and
we met up with him in the saddle between the two tops. We talked for a little
while before he moved on to Heimste Blåhornet and we got ready for the descent.
The snow was still hard, but that was OK. We had 850 vertical meters left of fun
skiing, and
hoped for softer snow in the forest.
Anne descending from Blåhorna
(Click for larger image)
The snow down in the forest was
indeed softer, and to me - this was the best part of the descent. I simply
love birch forest slalom, especially on hard snow with a tiny soft crust. We were
back at the trailhead 2:23pm - 4h:45m after heading out. Yet another
great day in the Norwegian mountains!
Strandadalen is coming closer - fast!
(Click for larger image)
- Svein's trip report can be found
here
- Arngeir's trip report can be found
here
- Erling posted an Easter report
here
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