Norwegian Mountains, Sogn og Fjordane
Helebrandseggi (920m) on skis, Mar 20 2011
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Helebrandseggi seen from Haugmelen
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The day after the memorable trip to Synnevaskjer, the sunshine left Indre Sogn. And as the weather was rapidly deteriorating too, Anne and me looked for a trip where we wouldn't be so exposed to the weather. Helebrandseggi came up as a good candidate, and the upsides were numerous; a high trailhead, almost guaranteed tracks towards Vassløysa, a forest with (hopefully) good snow for skiing and a fairly short summit ridge.
The trailhead is known as Goro (the name is not shown on the map) and is found north of Dalåker. Anne and me skied Store Haugmelen from here in January 2010. The road was (just like in 2010) ploughed, and we could follow ski-tracks from 500m elevation. Excellent!
Heading out from Goro
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After skiing 1,8km, we reached the fork just north of Syresete. We followed the route to Vassløysa for 400 meters before we turned right and broke trail up Helebrandseggi's north ridge. The snow was just perfect, and we looked forward to the descent. Birch forest skiing in good snow is utterly fun!
The wind picked up speed as we got onto the summit ridge. We reached the summit point 1h:35m after leaving Goro and we did not stick around for long! Our trip to Store Haugmelen was also on a cold and windy day, so Vetle Haugmelen will surely be visited on a sunny day!
On Helebrandseggi
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It was time for the main event of the trip - the forest skiing. The real fun only took place between the 820 and 660 contours, and while that's not a very long distance, we take whatever joy we can find. And you know it's joy when your first thought is to go back up again...
Descending Helebrandseggi
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The remaining route to Goro was not all downhill, and I didn't look forward to the flats with a slight uphill bearing. But fortunately, the snow was wet enough to provide a certain grip for my Telemark skis and the return to the trailhead went much easier than I had feared. We were back at the car 2h:20m after leaving.
