Lower part of skiing route to Auskjeret.
Skiing route from above ski-lift.| Auskjeret from
Øverøyane (ski) Auskjeret |
| Estimated net time | 2½-3 hours |
| Difficulty | No actual difficulties, but you should make sure you stay away from the cornices building up to north and east (on your right as you ascend). |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water during winter. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (March 2008). |
| Parking | Room for many cars at the ski centre's parking place. During opening hours this probably has a cost. |
| Start height | 387 metres |
| Vertical metres | 955 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 7.0 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
|
| Route photo |
Lower part of skiing route to Auskjeret.
Skiing route from above ski-lift. |
From Ålesund drive road E39 to Sjøholt. Just after Sjøholt take right towards Stordal on road 650, and drive for 23.6 km until signed for "Overøye" to your left. Drive this road for 9.0 km until you get to the ski centre. Find parking at the parking place (be prepared to pay a fee during opening hours).
Start skiing by following the right hand side of the right-most (north) slope. This will take you up the approximately 800 metres, where the ski-lift ends. From here continue west and later north towards the summit. Make sure you stay away from the cornices on your right hand side (north and east). In the later parts of the season it is likely that the machine making the down-hill tracks will have prepared tracks all the way to the summit.
At the summit also show care with respect to the cornices, and don't go too far east or north unless you really know the mountain.
The descent is best done through the ascent route, again being careful with respect to cornices, this time on your left.
Excellent hike together with Dag, but hard work breaking trail all the way from the ski-centre.
Based on the experiences Eric and I had with the snow on Frostadtinden the day before I though that it would be a good idea to try Auskjeret this Saturday since there was a fair chance that the slopes would be prepared, at least from 800 metres and down. Some organising was done, and also Marc and Phil (an English consultant working for us) wanted to come along, as well as Rachael and Joel (an English couple living in Ålesund). All the four Brits are keen snow boarders, and would get the lift up to 800 metres, and then walk to the summit.
We met at the Øverøyane car park around 10:45, waiting for the lift to start running at 11:00. The four snow boarders didn't fancy walking all the way to the summit, but Eric and me decided to ascent Auskjeret properly by doing the hard work all the way from the car park.
Eric and me set off at 11:10 and were soon passed by "the cheaters". When I got up to the flat section just below 800 metres I saw the three boys had just started the walk towards the summit. Rachael, however, was well ahead of them, making good progress. I soon caught up with the first three, and it was evident that skiing was easier than walking up with snow shoes. It might also be that carrying a (two in Marc's case) snow board didn't make things easier (I'll let Phil have that excuse ...). After walking together with the boys for a while I thought it best to try to close the gap to Rachael, in particular since she was heading a bit too far left if she wanted the shortest route to the summit. Somewhere around 1100 metres I had closed the gap, and I walked together with her for a while, until she decided to wait for the others. The six of us were now spread out in the upper quarter of the mountain, focusing on getting to the summit with enough fuel left to enjoy the descent.
At the summit I managed to take some photos before it started to snow. The rest of the team, when they arrived, weren't blessed with much of a view.
After a rest at the summit, some chocolate, and getting the gear ready, it was time for descent. At the top the snow was nice and hard and skiing was easy. Then there was a short section with a crust that didn't hold the weight of the skiers and hence making life a little bit more difficult. From around 1000 metres the snow was wet and heavy, making skiing (and boarding) relatively hard work. From the top of the lifts, at 800 meters, it was easier since the tracks had been prepared, but even here it was too much heavy snow.
Everyone made it down to the car park in fine style (well, my descent style on skies isn't really impressive but I got down with my skies on ...), but nobody were very keen on continuing skiing, even though the snow board gang had purchased day passes!
I had already a couple of days earlier planned to do Auskjeret in Stordal this Saturday if the weather was acceptable. I therefore got out of bed fairly early in order to pack, have breakfast and get to Øverøyane well before the ski-lifts started to run at 10:00.
I started skiing from Øverøyane at 09:15, doing an optimistic pace upwards (from the trail head the summit looks really close). As I got to the steeper parts of the ascent I realised that my opening pace had been too ambiguous, and had to more and more frequently stop for recovery (if I had had any fellow skier I would of course only be enjoying the view ...). As I got to about 800 metres, where the lift ends, I was seriously wondering if I was going to make it to the top. However, for some reason I started to feel a bit better after 900 metres, and from here I skied continuously without any stops. I was enjoying skiing in relatively freshly prepared down-hill (probably the night before) tracks, so I don't want to imagine how I would have felt if I had to make my way in a foot of fresh powder.
At the summit it was quite windy, and the sun I had during the start of the hike was well hidden behind clouds.
Since I was going to descend the same way I came up I decided to do parallel turns all the way down, as opposed to telemark. I haven't done much parallel turning (only 2-3 times), so this was a good opportunity to try to improve this skiing technique. The snow conditions (relatively hard, but not at all icy) made the descent an enjoyable ride, except for the narrow and relatively steep section just above the top of the ski-lift, which produced one non-spectacular fall.
As I got down to the top of the ski-lift two guys, who had got this far by means of the lifts, where putting on their skins in order to ski to the summit. After a quick chat I skied down to the car park. There were not many people in the slopes this Saturday, and it once again puzzled me why it seems most people stop skiing after Easter.