Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Storevarden (430m) and Teigetua on skis, Feb 15 2009
To the main Storevarden page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
The route
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After days of snowfall and temperatures below 0 deg. C., warmer air was moving in and the snow has settled a bit. The avalanche danger would most likely be high in the mountains, so I settled for safer ground on this Sunday. Storevarden seemed a good target. I hadn't been up there since 2006, and the mountain road was tempting. There were probably tracks up the road, which would make the ascent a bit easier.
After having passed Fosnavåg, it seemed like I had left civilization behind. The road to Nerlandsøya hadn't been plowed after the temperature change, and the road was terrible. Cars coming from the opposite direction had to be passed at 1km/h and with fine precision. I still wonder how I got up the hill to the trailhead, and it took some time before I found a place to park the car.
But the ski-trip went just fine. A corridor of tracks made the ascent easy. At 230m, I left the road and followed the markers up Storevarden. Fortunately, the snow carried my weight almost all the way up the mountain, and I reached the top 1h:10m after leaving the trailhead at 35m. I thought I was heading into a total white-out, but the weather changed for the better when I arrived on the summit, and the views weren't bad at all. Descending Storevarden required Telemark style, and except for eating snow a couple of times, the descent went quite well.
Mountain love
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On the way down, I stopped by Teigetua. Important nerd stuff was on the agenda. The 1:50,000 map stated that Teigetua was 268m, while Økonomisk Kartverk stated that this top was 265,74m. The two decimals indicated a reliable height, but it could still be old data. My GPS reported 270m steadily over a few minutes (error margin +/- 1.8m). I decided that until proven otherwise, Teigetua was 268m and with a primary factor of 50m, this top would now be on my Herøy 50m pf list.
Happy about the scientific mission, I left Teigetua 1:33pm and had a nice run down the mountain road. I was back at the car 1:49pm, content about the main road having been plowed, but disappointed about the fact that the side road I had parked on was almost blocked. I petted the Tiger on the hood and said "You need to show 4WD qualities if we're gonna make it home". Oh that sound, as we bounced onto the main road... From the Nerlandsøya bridge to Fosnavåg the road had not been plowed, and was a complete disaster.
Fosnavåg
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