Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Melshornet, Vardehornet, May 9 2009
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The forest road from Volda
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This weekend, I was babysitting Odin - a nice and well-behaved dog who belongs to a travelling colleague. It was a bit strange having a dog in the house again, but Odin was great company. On Friday afternoon (the day before), we went to Blåtind (697m) on Hareidlandet, and on this Saturday, I wanted to visit Melshornet again (not the Melshornet on Hareidlandet!) - on a new route.
The last (and first) time I visited Melshornet (March 2008), I skied the mountain from Krøvelseidet. My late dog Troll was company back then, and I still remember how his bad vision made him constantly drift sideways on the way down the mountain. I was definitely not lucky with the summit views back then (due to a snowfall), but today the weather seemed stable.
Blåfjellet/Sandhornet - visited 8 days later
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In Volda, I asked around, and located the trailhead after a little while. We had a bit of a slow start, as Odin needed to mark every inch of the forest road. On both sides. Once the territorial quest was under control, we made some progress. A number of hikers were already down. The majority appeared to be female students from Volda. In itself - not a bad reason to choose this one over the many other routes to Melshornet ...
Approaching Melshornet, the weather still seemed stable. But when we arrived on the summit, we hit a small snow inferno. What an amazing stroke of bad luck...
Snow on Melshornet
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I decided to descend via Vardehornet. The path from Dinglavatnet was easy to follow, and more hikers were on their way up from Volda. It was raining by now, and both Odin and myself were soaking wet. But the rain stopped after a little while, and I truly enjoyed the ridge path down the forest. This was certainly a much more fun route than the forest road. Perhaps with the exception of the female students...
The hike took 2,5 hours, and the total distance was approx. 9,5km. As I hadn't fully recovered from the flu (or virus), I needed a rest when I got back home. Odin didn't seem to mind at all. And a few hours later, we visited Leinehornet (366m) on Leinøya.
Odin
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