Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Storfjellet, Keipen, Hellandshornet, Urfjellet, Grønhornet, Øygardsheia

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Grønhornet via Øvrenakken, Jan 7 2007

For Information, maps, trailhead and route descriptions, click HERE.

The route, seen from Dryna

Saturday was spent building up a new server so the faithful readers of westcoastpeaks.com would get better bandwidth. The day was spent indoors with little grief, as it was raining all day. Sunday offered nicer weather in the morning, and I was "starving" for a new top. Actually, I was even more excited about taking a closer look at Skoradalen, and nominated Grønhornet as the target for the day.

During winter, the Norwegian roads are often the "crux" of the entire trip, and even so today. In 80km/h, I cruised along Lake Brusdalsvatnet in my brand new car, on DRY roads and in 8 (E I G H T) deg. C. Suddenly, just after the Reiakvam exit, the road wasn't dry anymore, and the car slided halfway across its lane before I got a grip. Shaken, AND stirred, I wondered how the road could be icy with an air temperature of 8 deg. My "mental" alarm goes off at +3, and this was not even close. Very, very, very scary.

Safe and sound, I arrived the head of Skoradalen valley. There was (seemingly) no path up the valley, so I decided to carry my little friend "Troll". I could chose between several boots (leather and plastic), but since I only carried crampons with "heel step-in" features, I had to wear my plastic boots. The backpack was heavy; full winter gear (everything included) and a dog.

I left the car 11:25AM, and the ascent to Skoranakken was a bona fide, exhausting nightmare. Nothing difficult, just very, very strenuous terrain. Once on Skoranakken, my attention was pointed towards the steep hillside to Øvrenakken. I decided to make a diagonal traverse of the hillside and hope for luck and good fortune at the very top.

The upper hillside was between 30 and 35 degrees, and in order to have a safe passage to the top, I used the axe to chop some steps in the snow. I realised that if this section had been 20m higher, I would have considered turning around.

On Øvrenakken, a gale force wind, of the strong and cold kind, hit against. I had one more kilometer to travel before I reached Grønhornet. The snow wasn't deep, and the gaiters never came on. The ridge up to Keipen (916m) was very tempting, as I could't quite determine if the route was doable or not in winter. An attempt would have to be made, but not today. The well-being of the dog had priority. I invited him to walk on Øvrenakken, but he just stood there, shivering. Drama is not what this little fellow is short on.

We reached Grønhornet 13:10PM, and there was only time for a round of pictures before I turned around. It was bloody cold (skikkelig surt) up there. In retrospect, I regret not attempting a descent via Grønhornet's north ridge, but it didn't occur to me, right there and then.

Back on Øvrenakken, 1 meter away from the steep hillside, I saw nothing between me and the car, 600m below. Fascinating. I descended down to Skoranakken, where I noticed a path. I tried to follow it, but it quickly vanished. A low pressure came in from the west, and it started to rain. We were back at the car 14:20PM, just before the weather turned really nasty.