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
(Click for larger image)
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
(Click for larger image)
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
(Click for larger image)
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
(Click for larger image)
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. |