Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Sneldelida, Smørkinna and Veten round trip,
Jan 18 2009

To the main Skolma/Sneldelida page


Mom was on a visit at my new place on Gurskøya. Her stay had done wonders to the decoration of the inside of the house. It was now high time to spend some time outdoors. She had already visited a couple of smaller tops on Gurskøya, and I figured it would be nice to show her Hareidlandet and Flø. I planned a hike up Flødalen, then a visit to Smørkinna (533m) and descent via Veten (521m). However, we got so close to Sneldelida (633m) that we (read: I) decided we could visit this top too...  

 

The route

The route
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The road up Flødalen was long, but as I hadn't been into this valley before, it was a nice walk. Flødalen is just something I call this valley. The map says the valley has two names - Midtflødalen and Indreflødalen. Which is a bit too complicated for my taste. IMHO, just because Flø is divided into Ytreflø, Midtflø and Indreflø, there's no apparent good reason why there couldn't be just one name for this valley.

The north faces of Breidfjellet and Brørene were intriguing. At first glance, one doesn't easily spot obvious routes up these faces, and it's fun looking out for any possible route there may be. Mom wasn't too interested in the faces, and was merely happy about being out in the open.

 

Breidfjellet and Brørene

Breidfjellet and Brørene
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I had also kept an eye out for a path that could take us up to Smørkinna. I didn't feel like going off-trail across the meadow - boggy as it probably would be. Halfway alongside Brørevatnet there was a ditch running in direction of Sneldelida. Next to the ditch was a path, which we followed. When we got to the foothills of Sneldelida, I suggested that we might as just well visit this top too, being merely 200 vertical meters below the top.

Sneldelida is a nice viewpoint. It's the 4th highest top in Hareid and the 5th highest in Ulstein. I had only been up here once before, in May 2006, along with my former hiking buddy Troll. This was a very windy Sunday, and we had to dress accordingly. Neither of us are strangers to wind, but a steady cold gale is a steady cold gale, no matter where you find it..

 

The route ahead

The route ahead
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We moved on towards Smørkinna. Crossing Sæmyrane was a bit tormenting as there wasn't a path - just turfs and boggy ground. But once we reached the path from Ytreflødalen things got easier. We didn't stay long on Smørkinna and moved on towards Veten. We were now battling with strong gale-force gusts, and control of the direction was from time to time a bit random. It's nice to get a feeling of the elements, now and then.

Veten offered a nice stone shelter. It was good to sit down and breathe naturally again. We continued along the edge on a path that we hoped would lead us down to the valley. We had a really good view down to Flø and then the path suddenly changed direction and led us into the forest. We lost the path in the forest, and I told mom that we might as well just "head straight down". The forest was quite steep, and mom isn't thrilled about steep terrain, but she seemed to have the necessary confidence in her guide..

 

Comfortable on Veten

Comfortable on Veten
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Trip facts:

The hike was approx. 12,2km. We headed out 10:27am, reached Sneldelida 12:10pm, Smørkinna 12:56pm, Veten 1:28pm and back at the trailhead 2:23pm, almost 4 hours after leaving. The route is described (w/map) on the main Skolma page.

 

Pictures

The pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 300D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6

 
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To Sneldelida

0. Trip tracks 1. The trailhead 2. Heading upwards. Veten rises above Flø 3. On a short forest road 4. On the mountain road 5. Breidfjellet and Brørene 6. Runde 7. Eagle above 8. Interesting red shade in the clouds 9. Storebroren 10. On the way to Sneldelida 11. On the way to Sneldelida 12. Mom on Sneldelida

Views from Sneldelida

13. Wide-angle view from Sneldelida 14. 85mm zoom view from Sneldelida 15. 85mm zoom view from Sneldelida

To Smørkinna and Veten

16. Ytreflødalen 17. The route ahead 18. Crossing Sæmyrane 19. Mom on Smørkinna 20. Godøya 21. Lesten on Godøya 22. Klovetinden and Masdalhornet 23. On the way to Veten 24. Mom on Veten

Descent

25. Descending Veten 26. Flø 27. Roppehornet 28. Off-trail in the forest 29. Veten

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