Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Høgekubben from Vasstranda, Feb 29 2008

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Høgekubben
(Click for larger image)

Time to walk the dog..

again. I chose to visit Høgekubben (not to be confused with Høgkubben on Blindheimsfjellet). I had only been to Høgekubben once before, Jan 15 2006, shortly after moving to Ålesund. It was high time I visited this top again, and this time, I decided to walk from Vasstranda. The dog and I left 16:00PM.

The road from Vasstranda nearly kills me. It is one of most boring walks I know. And as the dog didn't want to walk today, the weight on my shoulders increased significantly. To kill time, I looked for faces on the steep side of Spjelkavikfjellet. I found one that, barely, matched my criteria.

Snow

Already on top of the first hill, there was enough snow to give the dog some problems upon descent. I plowed the snow away with my boots, and walk got more and more boring.

But finally, I got Høgekubben in sight. The question was now where I should ascend. I had pictured that I would ascend from Lake Langevatnet, but the mountain looked quite steep in that direction. Instead, I headed up the valley between Høgekubben and Spjelkavikfjellet, aiming for a gully between the closed 440m contour and the high point. I couldn't see the gully from my position, but assumed it would not be too steep. After recently attending an avalanche course, I felt obligated to take this into consideration..

The snow across the meadow partly carried my weight. When I broke through, I broke through big time, and I ended up with snow up to my waist. The snow was of the sort that if I made a careful step, waited half a second before moving on, the snow turned dense enough to carry. The ascent up the gully went slow, but it was also enjoyable.  It was getting late, I was all alone up here (except for the dog, of course), and the terrain was somewhat steep with big icicles all around.  

On top

I reached the top 17:40PM and it was a bit windy. I took some pictures, and the dog decided to stay in the backpack. I then turned back around and took a steep short-cut down the hillside west of the gully.

Back on the road, the dog was instructed to walk and so he did, although unwillingly. My plowing had done things easier for him, but far from easy. But once we got to the real downhill part, he seemed to enjoy himself. We were back down 18:32PM, just before dark and 2,5 hours after leaving.