Norwegian Mountains, Møre og Romsdal
Koppefjellet and Høystøylfjellet from Velsvika,
Feb 6 2011
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The route to Koppefjellet
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After 2 weeks of storms, heavy rain, snowfall, etc., the time had come to visit a new top on Sunnmøre. The weather was holding up in the morning, but I just knew it wouldn't last. Koppefjellet is one of the very few mountains I can see from my house, and the only one that I hadn't been to yet. It was high time to visit Koppefjellet...
The reason why I hadn't been there yet was obvious, as it's quite an expensive (and time consuming trip). In addition to the (fairly long) Volda-Lauvstad-Volda ferry trip, I also had to pay the Eiksundtunnelen toll twice. But today, Koppefjellet (and it's moderate elevation) was a perfect goal and I took the travel cost with a smile.
Høystøylfjellet seen from the ferry
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The road from Lauvstad from Velsvika was terrible, just terrible. No ploughing on Sundays, apparently. The road up to Koppen wasn't much better, and I decided to park down by Velsvika. Naturally, it started to pour down as I headed out. There wasn't enough snow to warrant skiing, and I carried the skis well past Koppen. I assumed that I was being observed by the Koppen locals and smiled while thinking about what they were thinking...
Koppen and Koppefjellet
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I had never been to this area, and had no idea about the route, but assumed that a route would present itself. Arriving at Høystøylen, it seemed natural to keep heading east, up the forest.
The forest route led me up to the Storeskora pass, where the wind was quite notable. After a short and windy trip up the ridge, I arrived on the Koppefjellet (Tua) summit 12:40pm - 1h:10m after leaving the car.
I turned around after a few minutes, returned to Storeskora and sat course for Høystøylfjellet. At this point, I only knew of this top as point 468m (471m on Økonomisk Kartverk), but a phone call to Jakob Koppen the following day led me to this name.
Høystøylfjellet was an even windier place than Koppefjellet, and I look forward to get off the mountain. My tentative plan which included point 410m (Heiane) on the south side of Nakkeskardet got cancelled. It was snowing horizontally and this was definitely not a fun place to be.
A windy mountain
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I skied as far as I possibly could (well past Koppen), and had a good laugh when I saw the black tracks I was leaving behind. When I heard the first scratching noise, I took the skis off. Soaking wet, I returned to the car 1:22pm. The time was 1:27pm when I was all good to go and I remembered that the ferry left 1:40pm. If I missed it, I would have to wait for the 3:10pm ferry.
That was not an option, and I drove as fast as I've ever driven on a road with 10cm of soaking wet snow. I made the ferry with a 2-minute margin, only to observe that the ferry waited 5 more minutes for a couple of late cars...
Briefly contemplating a no-no descent route
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