Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Storefjelltinden on foot from Dalsfjorden, June 21 2009
To the main Storefjelltinden page (maps, route descriptions, other trip reports, etc.)
The Dalsfjorden route to Storefjelltinden
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When my friend Åsmund suggested a hike to Storefjelltinden, I was all for it. Dalsfjorden was completely new territory for me, and so I looked very much forward to this hike. As fog seemed to be stuck on the mountain tops this weekend, I didn't have high hopes for great panoramic pictures, but there will be many more trips to Dalsfjorden..
Åsmund had recently visited Tenna (the neighbour mountain) along the path from Innselset, and as the route to Storefjelltinden follows the same path halfway up the mountain, I could just "sit back" and be guided up the mountain. How nice, for a change.
Rather than driving to Volda and take the ferry to Lauvstad, I took the Årvika - Koparnes ferry, drove around Syvdsfjorden, along Rovdestranda (first time) and then along Dalsfjorden (also for the first time). It was a very enjoyable drive. Sunday morning and no traffic. The view up to Syvdsalpane/Breteigsfjella was stunning and the Høystakken peak is quite a "piece of work":
Høystakken
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I teamed up with Åsmund - and the adorable Ronja - at Innselset. We headed out 11:45am, and it was a very hot day. The path to Keipedalsvatnet was easy to walk, and extensive work has obviously been put into it in places. I assume horses were carrying heavy loads here in the old and hard days. We could have done without all the flies, though. But a quite amusing moth caught my attention:
A moth
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We stopped by Keipedalsvatnet and spent 10 minutes skimming rocks in the lake. Man, this is fun! And it must be ages since I last did it. Ronja had great fun in snapping after flies, and then it was time to move on towards Storefjelltinden. An interesting observation; Keipedalsvatnet has no visible outlet. The lake drains underground and there is no river or creek marked on the map. Where does all this water go? Well, into the fjord - of course, but where exactly?
To Storefjelltinden
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Storefjelltinden was quite confusing in terms of the high point. We arrived at the northern cairn, and we could (barely) see the trigonometric point in the distance. Surely, the trig. point had to be lower? Moreover, the middle cairn seemed a bit higher - or equally high as the the point we were on. The fog made any sort of conclusion difficult. We reached the trig. point 1:55pm, 2h:10m after heading out, and the northern point(s) looked higher still.
I was able to get closer to a grouse that I've ever been in my life. I was just a few meters away from her, and then I curved around and snuck up behind her (scaring off the male bird along the way). My pretending to sneak like a native Indian paid off through two close-up pictures...
"Fortunately", there was still some snow left on Storefjelltinden, so we could practice our regular toss-snowballs-to-Ronja-routine. It's always hysterical fun. But, a foggy Storefjelltinden summit was no place to hang out, so we descended after just a short stay. After a fun glissade (on boots), we ended up on a ridge parallel to our ascent route. This ridge led us down to the edge above Dalsfjorden, from where we had superb views! An airy point caught our attention, and the 700 meter vertical drop between us and Dalsfjorden suddenly felt very real.
Airy viewpoint
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Dalsjorden was a mix of green and cyan - completely beyond comprehension. Man, what a pleasant view! The fact that the beautiful tops above it were hidden in fog wasn't an issue at all. The fjord completely captured our attention. A bit further down, we ran into a small "gorge", and Åsmund decided that he wanted to jump across it. He successfully performed his jump, but his close margin to the gorge did not make me want to follow his steps (although I strongly wanted to). He's got longer legs than I, but isn't it nice to be 12 years old again, every now and then?
A flying Åsmund
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The rest of the hike was conducted in an adult and responsible manner, and we were back at the trailhead 3:35pm, 3h:50m after heading out. Safe and sound...
