![]()
Norwegian Mountains, Møre og RomsdalEggene, Matøskja, Jan 31 2009To the main Matøskja page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.) ![]()
My good friend Petter was visiting me in my new house on Gurskøya, and according to procedure, we go on a trip (or two) together. As the weather forecast was extremely favorable, I proposed that we should visit Matøskja. I also invited my friends Åsmund and Arngeir to come along. Åsmund was spending the weekend at Folkestad - just down the road from the Matøskja trailhead, while Arngeir had to drive all the way from Brattvåg. We met Arngeir in Volda early on this fine Saturday morning and drove to the Øvsteberget trailhead. On the curvy road to Øvsteberget, I could see Åsmund ahead of us. Good timing! Åsmund was the only one in the group who had been to Matøskja before, and we followed the route that he suggested. We went on foot from the trailhead (240m) and up to 470m, where we put our skis on. When Petter arrived the evening before, SAS had managed to leave his skis, shoes, crampons and ice-axe in Bergen. It's amazing that the airline companies still haven't worked out a way to guarantee that the luggage follows the passenger. Especially on direct flights. So here was Petter, on the way to Matøskja, with poles off Åsmund, crampons off Arngeir and skis and shoes off me. Fortunately, he had brought his clothes as carry-on luggage. But I had forgotten to make sure that the boots matched the bindings on the skis I lent him. They didn't, and some time went by fixing this. These skis were Madshus Glittertind, narrow and only 180cm long. Petter seems a bit unhappy on skis shorter than 200cm. And the entire mountain (above 500m) was just a big chunk of ice and hard snow!
![]() The group actually counted 5. Åsmund's lovable dog Ronja came along (as she always does). I did feel a bit sorry for her when we headed up the cold and windy valley from Grøndalsvatnet. But she didn't seem to suffer. On the contrary, actually. The wind was definitely picking up, as I had suspected it would. There are few things I dislike more than being freezing cold on a mountain, so I had dressed accordingly. For the first time since the Greenland expedition in '04, I was wearing double set of underwear! Plus long underwear and trousers. Above the waist, I had one woollen and one fleece sweater and a wind-stopper jacket. When we decided to leave the skis behind at 1150m, the Gore-tex and the headnecker came on too. Further down in the valley, I decided to impress the group by stating that one should hold on to things that could blow away. And in the middle of putting on an extra set of gloves, one of the gloves blew away. Running downhill with skins on, chasing a windborne glove, always looks ridiculous. Ronja rose to the occasion and rescued the glove, but figured she had earned the right to kill it first. The group had earned a good laugh, and got one. A bit higher up, I lost the camera lens-cap. It blew to the west, and I was convinced this was the last time I ever saw it. But then Åsmund and Ronja went after it. And retrieved it! The next time I feel like handing out mountaineering advice, I'll make good sure I don't... ![]()
Being so close to Eggene, we all agreed that we should stop by the summit. Matøskja looked quite steep from Eggene, but because of the shadows, it was difficult to get a clear impression. I had no ambition to ascend Matøskja unroped on pure ice. Thus, I had been carrying a 20m rope and two ice-screws. These never came to any use, as the ice on Matøskja was much softer than on the rest on the mountain. The ice was crisp, and collapsed when we stepped on it. ![]()
Nevertheless, we had to mind our steps. A fall could easily lead to a nasty tumble down the mountainside. But we're all careful folks, and arrived on Matøskja summit safe and sound, 3h:45m after leaving the trailhead. The views were breathtaking! Any type or form of effort would be worth all this. Sunnmørsalpene, Nordfjord mountains, Lodalskåpa, Jostedalsbreen.. It was all there. And my camera had broken down on the way to Eggene. Could a camera break down at any more inconvenient moment? Thanks to donations from the others, this trip report is only lacking the moment pictures that I took along the way. Ascending Matøskja
Åsmund was in a hurry, so we didn't stick around too long. Above Grøndalsvatnet, he and Ronja left us. That is, he left us. He asked me to hold Ronja back until he was way down the hillside (as she runs so incredible fast, and likes to run in circles around him). Holding on to a Rottweiler, watching her master leave, is .. quite something. When I finally let her go, she took off like a rocket, and I guess it didn't take long for her to be running around in circles again.. Skiing down the icy slope towards Grøndalsvatnet made me think of my dentist, as all my teeth were vibrating. Arngeir and I had good skis and could apply some pace, while Petter was forced to take it a bit easier on unfamilar and inconvenient skis.. After having crossed Grøndalsvatnet, we took a different route back down to Øvsteberget. We were able to ski for a while along a forest road (and then some), but we all arrived at the trailhead on foot, 4h:25m after leaving. Descending Matøskja
Sticking to tradition, Petter cooked dinner when we got back home. We shopped food in Volda, and I proudly announced that I had already bought salt & pepper (my kitchen isn't equipped like most other kitchens..). While preparing the steaks, Petter asked for the pepper, and I handed him peppercorns. I really don't know (or care about) the difference between peppercorns and non-peppercorns, but Petter seemed disappointed. Black Pepper was what he wanted, and so, armed with a hammer, I actively got involved in the dinner preparations. It's almost a week since Petter left, and I'm still picking up peppercorns in the kitchen.. --- Petter's trip report can be found here, and Arngeir's trip report can be found here. |
The first set of pictures were taken with a Canon EOS 300D + Canon EF-S
17-85mm IS USM F 4-5.6.
The other pictures were taken with different cameras.
Javascript
slideshow (Full size images)
|
Flash
slideshow (Images scaled down. |
|
![]() |
![]() |
To Grøndalsvatnet
To Matøskja
and this is where my camera died...
360 deg. 85mm zoom view from Matøskja (© Petter Bjørstad)
Other pics from Matøskja + descent
No Javascript:
0A 0B 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39
|