Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Otrefjellet, Apr 4 2007

This trip follows route #2 also described on the Otrefjellet main page

Trip report, Apr 4 2007

The weather this Easter was not of the good sort, even if the sun was shining now and then. I did not find the inspiration to drive far, just to get a new top in ugly weather. So it had to be somewhere close. Ever since I visited Otrefjellet back in March 2006, I had thought of returning, in order to take a closer look at the remarkable gap (in lack of a better word), cutting through the upper ridge. As the mountain is not located far away from Torill Berg, I called and invited her along, promising her "spectacular" terrain. She had already been to Nihusen (438m) early in the morning, but said OK to a second hike.

We left the Ulvestadvatnet trailhead in Vatne 12:50PM, and enjoyed almost a snow-free forest road up to the lake. After making it across the stream, we were able to follow a snow-free path almost up to point 519m. Torill put her gaiters on. I didn't find mine before I left home, and would have to do without. My dog Troll had walked up to this point, but now he entered the backpack.

Along the ridge, we passed several sections that were spooky. The ridge is all "cracked up", and there was no telling if we would step through something nasty. It felt like walking on a dangerous glacier, and without safety measures. How bizzare, when you look at this ridge from distance, and think it's one of the "dullest" ridges you ever saw.

The gap

Then we entered the gap, or whatever the right word is. It seemed to be a mix of a labyrint, a ravine, a canyon, whatever, with ugly "teeth" sticking up everywhere. The pictures have "jaws" in the filename. I found that quite appropriate. We found a fairly easy route straight trough. Light scrambling. We paused in the middle of this route, and spent some time scrambling around. There was no telling how deep the holes went, but I'm confindent that it was at least 10 meters from the photographer's position, to the lowest point that wasn't completely dark.

The "gap" was a nice spot to be in. The wind on the ridge was fierce, probably around 25 m/s in the gusts, and the gap provided a temporary shelter. I was going almost deaf from the "machine-gun noise" inside my jacket's hood. Standing on top of the gap meant that one had to hold on to something, otherwise the wind would, for sure, knock us straight off the cliff.

Torill agreed that this was a spectacular piece of nature, located in a weird place, and seemed to enjoy the scrambling as much I did. It feels good to be a young kid once in a while.

To the top and back again

We reached Otrefjellet summit 14:30PM. Taking pictures was very difficult, but I agree with Torill that the wind felt LESS strong on the very top. We turned back around after just a few minutes. We took the same route across the gap, but as the entry point was a bit steep for me (because of the dog), we had to find another way out. We did, but not without some "creativty". I was thinking to myself, as Torill passed me my backpack, containing Troll, and in a somewhat awkward spot - "the moments are there for grabs, one only has to go out and be ready for them".

We were back at the trailhead 15:40PM. A short, but INTERESTING hike had come to its end.