Estimated net time	4-5 hours
Difficulty	No real difficulties, but skiing through the forest below 800 metres is cumbersome, both up and down. Be aware of the cornices towards north and north-east around the summit.
Drinking water	No access to drinking water during winter.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the route (February 2010).
Parking	Room for several cars at car park by trail head.
Start height	418 metres
Vertical metres	1035 metres for the roundtrip.
Trip distance	7.7 km
GPS-file	X
Map		Google Interactive Map
Route photo	Start of route to Ådalstinden, at Seljebotn.   Route to Ådalstinden from above forest.

From Ålesund drive road E39 to Sjøholt. Drive through Sjøholt centre, and turn right onto road 650, signed for "Geiranger" and "Stordal". From this junction drive 23.6 km and turn left where signed for "Overøye". Drive another 6.2 km and turn right, following signs for "Seljebotn". From here drive 2.2 km, making sure you fork right after having crossed the small bridge. You now have a farm ahead of you and a car park on your left hand side. Park here.

Start skiing by following the road past the farm. Continue straight ahead, below the forest, and then turn left. Start you ascent through the birch forest by staying right of the spruce forest, and aiming for somewhere in the middle of the section between the two rivers/gullies coming down from the mountain. Skiing through the birch forest is cumbersome, but not technically difficult.

When you get above the forest continue north-east, and you will soon see Ådalstinden summit. Aim for the left (west) side of the summit, and then gradually ski east as you get close to the summit ridge. The last few hundred metres is easy skiing across to the summit, which is marked by a cairn.

The descent is best done by reversing the ascent route, finding the least cumbersome route down through the forest.

20. February 2010

Since my friend Stig had made the move to get himself skis for mountain skiing, I decided to ask him if he wanted to join me for my planned hike to Ådalstinden. As always, he was keen on some fun and adventure, and we agreed that I pick him up at 08:00 on Saturday morning.

After an hour's drive from Brattvåg we were ready to start skiing from Seljebotn. The temperature was -9°C, and even down in the valley there was an annoying wind. After some hesitations on the finer details of the route and where to "attack" the forest, we ended up heading into the birch forest very close to the thick spruce forest. In hindsight this seems to be the best route, but it was strenuous in the deep snow. When we got out of the thickest forest the terrain got a little steeper, so we decided to traverse back-and-forth a little up to the open mountain side above the forest.

Getting above the forest felt like having completed the hardest part of the hike, but we knew we still had some 700 vertical metres to ascend, and we soon realised it would be 700 cold vertical metres. But the snow was perfect, and we took turns in breaking tracks up the mountain side. On a number of occasions we both commented the quality of the snow, and the prospect of a very enjoyable descent. As we got into the steep section below the summit we saw another hiker coming up to the flatter section above the forest, taking advantage of our tracks.

Having completed the steeper section we made our way across to the summit, which was indeed a cold and windy place. The planned stop to enjoy lunch was therefore ditched, and we quickly took off the skins, put on some more clothes, and took the compulsory photos. After this we where cold, in particular fingers were colder than the comfort level, but the prospect of a fantastic descent got the better of negative thoughts related to freezing. And a fine descent it was, with snow enabling relative novice skiers like Stig and me to be able to cruise down and make more or less the turns exactly the way we wanted them to be. After a quick chat with the guy following in our tracks, and finding out that he didn't have any advice on a good route through the forest, we continued towards the forest.

After some hesitations before diving into the forest we decided to go for it. Stig did pretty well, but I had major problems in the beginning. After getting "warmed up" (at least mentally), I also managed OK, and my worries almost turned into joy.

Below the forest we had to ascend a few metres in order to get back to the farm and the road back to the car, but this had a major benefit of improving the blood circulation and hence creating some warmth. Back at the car we quickly changed into footwear and clothes suitable for driving, and head back down the road. After a short stop at Stordal to buy a couple of Cokes we headed back home, discussing how often one could expect snow like this.
Photos 20.02.2010