Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions - Storhornet, Lesten, Godøya

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

"The WCP airport shuttle", May 12 2008
Sukkertoppen and Godøyfjellet

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Sveinung's visit to the Ålesund region ..

was coming to an end. We had done two nice trips in two days; Kvitegga on Saturday and Sylvkallen on Sunday. On this Monday afternoon (the last day of Pentacost), I would drive him to the airport, but not without showing some of my favorite walks in the region.

First stop; Sukkertoppen

We headed out from the parking area by the aquarium and headed up Trollråsa. After the grey and rainy Sunday, the gorgeous weather was back. We arrived at the Trollråsa mailbox and Sveinung signed the visitor's register. Just as we started to move towards the top, I spotted a female Black Grouse. On several occasions, I've skipped heartbeats after dark when this type of bird had lifted, only a few feet away. But I had never seen one. Apparently, a male is lurking around here too. Sveinung, who knows a great deal about this bird family, couldn't understand what it was doing up in this steep and rocky hillside. We managed to get a good look at it before it took off. A fun encounter, it was.

Black Grouse in Trollråsa (Click for larger image)

"Frokostklubben" ..

(the breakfast club) is a merry group of men who frequently head down (from the top) to a big rock above Trollråsa. We had a long and fun chat with this group before we headed up to the top. It was still fairly early in the morning (just after 10AM), but there was quite a number of people on the top. Sveinung was impressed. We chatted some more with people before we headed down the normal route, descended off-trail to Skarbøvika and followed the road back to the parking lot.

Next stop was Godøyfjellet.

Sveinung had been to Godøyfjellet once before, but he never saw the "Johan Skytt" rock. When I showed him a picture, he got interested and wanted to see it. So we headed up from Alnes. The colors were intense, and I couldn't remember seeing the Alnes grass ever so green. My dog Troll was still keeping us company, and insisted on doing his share of walking. The howl from the backpack was unmistakable.

"Johan Skytt" is a large rock that shoots out from the plateau by Lake Alnesvatnet. Standing on the edge of the rock is an airy experience. I guess you would fall 70-80 meters before you hit anything, and that would be a big ouch. I was sort of familiar with this rock after my last visit up here, and walked bravely out on the edge of the rock. The wind was notable. But it wasn't gale force, so no worries...

Sveinung had to acclimate a bit before standing tall on the edge. Unfortunately, I ended up taking pictures of him with his camera only. Perhaps he'll send me one for the album. I felt I had to take it up one notch and performed a couple of split jumps. Indeed, my vertigo is diminishing by the year. Excellent..

Up one notch.. (Click for larger image)

We went up to the island high point - Storhornet (497m) and relaxed for a while. Sunnmøre sure looks pretty from up here. A new circular viewfinder was installed on top, and the visitors can now see the names of the distant mountains. We descended the west ridge and walked around Lake Alnesvatnet before descending back to Alnes. Troll (14,5 yrs) was rather exhausted after a long day in the mountains. I drove Sveinung to the airport and wished him a good journey back to Voss. And hoped he enjoyed the wcp airport shuttle.