Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Skjerdingen & "The big white", Aug 30 2007

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Woah, what a weird hike this turned out to be. I decided to visit Skjerdingen (1061m) this afternoon, as I had seen that there had fallen some snow on top. I figured it would be "cool" to step in fresh snow in August. Not that I wanted the snow to be there, not until October anyway, but now that it was here I might as well step in it.

The weather was quite OK, but I assumed it would start raining in the evening. So I should at least reach the top before the rain sat in. I drove from work with my convertible roof down, enjoying sunshine. I stopped by the house to pick up the hiking gear and moved on towards Vatnedalen.

The time was 16:35PM when I left the Vatnedalen trailhead. My soon-14 year old dachshund Troll was in the backpack. He doesn't fully enjoy steep ascents anymore. But he's a mad dog in downhills. I took me half an hour up the 580m cairn, and then I noticed a HUGE cloud moving in from the sea, forcing its way between Storfjellet and Skjerdingen. I couldn't see the top of Skjerdingen yet, and I wondered what it would be like up there.

The cloud suddenly made a 90 deg. turn to the east and covered Skjerdingen within a few minutes. Just as I entered the snow at 900m elevation, it began to snow as well. Wet snow and a cold wind. Not so pleasant. The snow had leveled out the rocky terrain, and Troll could walk the remaining distance up to the summit, which we reached 18:02PM.

After a summit picture, we headed down. I carried Troll across the roughest boulder, the rest of the way he walked by himself. Once we were out of the fog and the snow, a rainshower came up from Vatne. I was already wet from the snow, but now I got wet to the very skin. My gloves were soaking wet and it felt colder wearing them.

The shower lasted 10 minutes before it disappeared over Melen, and now the sun broke through. We were back at the trailhead 19:15PM, just before another rainshower set in. Troll, who had did a tremendous job in keeping the pace down the mountain was shivering. I enabled the seat heat button, and before 5 minutes had gone, he was in deep sleep.

Pictures from the Aug 30 2007 hike

Slideshow:

Map: We followed route 1.1 on this trip

0. Route 1.1 from Vatnedalen

Earlier in the day

1. Chimneys by Ellingsøyfjorden (108KB) 2. Fresh snow on Molladalstindane (219KB) 3. Fresh snow on Hundatinden (152KB)

To Skjerdingen

4. To Skjerdingen (274KB) 5. Ytstetinden and Trolltinden (179KB) 6. To Skjerdingen (332KB) 7. Nice light (125KB) 8. Oh oh .. (130KB) 9. Last view (526KB) 10. The fog embraces us (246KB) 11. On snow !! (162KB) 12. Skjerdingen summit (141KB) 13. Troll on Skjerdingen (140KB)

Descent

14. Cool rock (270KB) 15. The slippery rock is a challenge (254KB) 16. Troll and an incoming rainshower (281KB) 17. The -big white- is thick, too (173KB) 18. The rainshower is leaving (188KB) 19. Quiet after the rain (184KB) 20. Troll facing obstacles (375KB) 21. Arriving the trailhead in sunshine (230KB)

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