Norwegian Mountains - Route Descriptions

Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal

Straumshornet, July 4 2007

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

Torill Berg initiated this company (Rolls-Royce Marine) trip to Straumshornet. We were 10 colleagues, 1 ex-colleague and two younger boys, taking the 16:50PM ferry from Magerholm on this nice Wednesday afternoon. The target route was the north ridge, and one of the guys (Johannes) had been on Straumshornet a couple of times before.

We headed out 17:40PM, and after a very short off-trail section, we located the forest path. While Straumshornet appeared majestic from the trailhead, it wasn't less so, seen up close. We entered the long hillside that would take us around the steepest side. The terrain was easy enough, although the consequences of a slide or a fall grew proportional to the vertical gain. A confusing weather forecast had made me expect rainshowers and thunder, but the sun kept shining.

Chatting as we were, we ended on the wrong track just below the summit ridge. Stig, Arngeir and I found ourselves in front a YDS class 4 problem that Arngeir handled with most grace. Arngeir offered to lend a helping hand. I got a flashback to the trip across Jostedalsbreen, where the guide put out a helping hand. The reward for ignoring the guide and his helping hand, was losing a pole into a bergschrund.

While looking at Arngeir and his hand, a voice inside me kept shouting: overcome your stubborn side!. Then, another inner voice, a much higher voice, yelled: C'mon. Get your ass up that mountain!. The outcome of this episode was that I grabbed onto a loose rock that Arngeir was standing on, and pulled myself up. That was a win-win situation. Arngeir had helped out, in a discrete manner, and I avoided the humiliation from being hauled up. Good sense is nothing. Pride is everything...

Up on the ridge, we came across the really cool "bridge", defining a hole-in-the-ridge beneath. Falling to the right would result in a broken bone or two. Falling to the left would cause the number 206 to come up. (Google "206 bones human body" if you lost me). There was nothing to hold on to, unless you crawled. And since no one in this group would be seen crawling, some may have felt a little extra adrenaline here.

The rest of the summit ridge was trivial. We reached the top 19:00PM, and the two younger boys had already been up there for 10 minutes or so. We moved onto another viewpoint further out on the ridge, where the visitor register was located. Everyone took the normal route except Torgeir, Torill and I. I didn't want to miss out on some good scrambling, and while Torill had no ambition (whatsoever) to scramble this airy ridge, she couldn't said no when I reminded her that she needed the practice.

She had an aura while scrambling the ridge. The aura had a readable form and said "$$#!0&%%## Arnt..".

Noone would join me for the scrambling the same route back. That was harder. Much harder. With my butt high above Straumsgjerdet, and my arms around a pointy rock on the middle of the ridge, I had only one thought: smartass... But it was a fun scramble altogether.

Another hiker came along, and two others were on their way up the mountain as we headed down 19:45PM. We chose to descend Fetråsa where the first hiker came up. I didn't like this route at all. Loose gravel and awkward slabs called for great caution. After a while, we joined our ascent route. We arrived the trailhead in separate groups, the middle group arriving 20:45.

This was a very enjoyable hike, and very enjoyable company. It was nice to get to met colleagues that I didn't know already, and learn about other mountains they had been to. Thanks to Torill and the Brattvåg gang for making this trip happen!