Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Storhornet, Lesten, Godøya

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Lestagjølet, Waves and Eagles, Mar 8 2008

A Godøya moment (Click for larger image)

I've said it before...

but Godøya is heaven on earth. I have now a few dozen visits to this island, and I never had one dull hike. Today was no exception. It was Saturday, but I didn't have the inspiration to go on a long trip. I called my friend Per and invited him on a Lesten grand tour.

Per and I had only done two walks earlier; one up Trollråsa and one hike to Rødlandstua with Per and his wife. Per hasn't done a lot of scrambling before, so I picked a route based on how he did in Trollråsa. The choice fell on the "Lestagjølet" gully as the ascent route to Lesten. The name is quoted as I've invented this name. People don't seem to hike this route.

But first..

it was time to enjoy the waves along the shore. We started out from the Storhornet trailhead at Gjuv 11:31AM. The weather was nice and the wind was insignificant. However, the waves were quite fierce and resulted in some very cool splashes against rocks. I've come to realize that I like photographing waves and splashes (as you will see below).

The next moment was 9 (n i n e) eagles cruising above our heads. And I made sure I didn't count the two ravens that attempted to crash on this family gathering. Most of them were white-tailed eagles. Some weren't, and given my zero knowledge about eagles, I can only assume these were golden eagles, or perhaps pre-white younglings. Competent readers are welcome to drop me an email...

"Lestagjølet"..

is a fun route up the plateau. I had been up here 3 times earlier. One time alone, one time with Terje and one time with Pål. Today it was Per's turn, and I was curious about how he would cope with a cliff ledge that had to be climbed (YDS 4). He struggled at first. Then I climbed up, and now that he saw the "procedure", he immediately followed.

Once up from the gully, I figured we could continue the scrambling. It's good practice, and Per agreed. We had a fun time up to the plateau, and I suspect that Per surprised himself one or two times.

Lesten..

We took a small rest above the amazing Kjerringgjølet couloir, just below Lesten's high point. Per enjoyed rest, water and chocolate while I headed down the ridge west of Kjerringgjølet. I had been curious about this route for a long time, and after descending 50-60 vertical meters, I still hadn't run into any problems. From distance, this part had seemed to be the hardest. With a lot of enthusiasm, I headed back up to Per. I hope to ascend this ridge in the near future.

We passed the Lesten high point 14:30PM. The sun had returned after a short absence. Only downhill from here, and 15:13PM, we were back at the car. I felt a bit guilty about leaving the dog home alone, but I was glad I didn't have to carry him on this trip. I made partly up for it by taking him up Skiheisa on Blindheimsfjellet once I got home.