Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Melshornet on skis, Mar 22 2008
To the main Melshornet page.
The winter route
(Click for larger image)
I guess many skiers ..
with ambitions for higher Ørsta peaks, ended up on Melshornet on this first day after Easter. Me, being one of them. The weather forecast didn't deliver on its promise, and it was more or less snowing all day long.
My original plan had been to ski to Masdalshornet, but I lost the interest when I pictured a 2 x 3,4Km trip in a white-out above 900m, and besides, I would have to ski 4Km just to get to Vartdalssætra. Given that I would have to carry my dog Troll in the backpack, I decided to visit Melshornet instead.
Melshornet took me by ..
surprise. I knew very little about this mountain, other than it was a popular mountain. And especially around Easter. I assumed that most people were busy in the runs above the ski-centre. And since I had no plans about taking the ski-lift, I wondered how I could get up the mountain without interfering with the descending skiers.
That was something I didn't have to worry about, as an autostrada ran from the road by Krøvelseidet and all the way up to the top. Far away from the ski-centre. 2 years ago, Troll would have walked the entire distance. But not today. Except for a short distance, I carried him all the way up.
I left the car 11:50AM and reached the top of Melshornet 12:56PM. While there was certainly a lot of people along the track, there wasn't a crowd. Which in turn meant that I could let Troll walk down the mountain without too much trouble.
Troll descending Melshornet
(Click for larger image)
A drifting dog
Troll's poor sight makes him drift sideways. He's dependent on having a clearly defined path in order to maintain his course. With me skiing on his left side, he more or less was able to maintain the general direction. The upsides were that a) I had got myself a new top, while b) exercising the dog. The downside was of course that I wasn't able to just glide down the mountain.
Back at the car, I seriously considered going back up again. But the snowfall had resumed, and a lot of that snow would stick in my eyes. I need to add goggles to the standard equipment list..
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