Route from Norangsdalen towards Blæja.
| Blæja from Norangsdalen (ski) Blæja |
| Estimated net time | 3-4 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties, except a potential cornice towards north at the summit. | ||
| Drinking water | No access to running water during winter, but during spring there is likely to be running water from the stream in the lower part of the route. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage at the summit, but very patchy throughout the route, and no coverage at trail head (April 2012). | ||
| Parking | Room for a few cars along the road at trail head. | ||
| Start height | 318 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 1125 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 9.0 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Ålesund drive road E39 south towards Bergen, and then exit onto road 60 just south of Ålesund. This road is signed for Stranda. Follow road 60 to the Magerholm ferry port and get the ferry across to Aursneset. From Aursneset ferry port follow road 60 for approximately 35 km, across Strandafjellet, to where you get to a T-junction. There is an Esso petrol station on the right hand side of the road (per 2012). Turn right here and continue 27.3 km along road 60 in the direction of Stryn, and turn right where signed for road 655 and "Ørsta". Drive another 5.6 km and park along the road on the right hand side. This is 600 metres after the exit left to "Villa Norang".
Start skiing on the left hand side of the road, ski through the narrow belt of small trees, and continue up through the valley, heading directly west. You should aim for the rounded top at 1372 metres. Before you get to the summit of this top turn right (north), ski down to the saddle at approximately 1350 metres, and climb the final 70 metres to Blæja. Don't continue too far north as there is likely to be a cornice there.
Descend by reversing your ascent route, but stay left (east) of the top 1372m in order to avoid a re-ascent.
With fair weather forecast for this Easter Saturday I suggested to Sigurd the night before that we ski Blæja in the morning. And when the weather was like forecasted we had our breakfast and left our cabin at Fjellsetra before 8am.
At trail head, which we found after first having driven up to Villa Norang, we saw what we had hoped for; tracks going uphill. Hence skiing was relatively easy, but a little more strenuous for Sigurd on snow shoes and carrying his snow board. When we were well underway another car parked down by the road, and three skiers soon emerged. And when we got up towards top 1372m we saw yet another couple of skiers going for Blæja. Or possibly going for Blæja; of the seven tracks we counted coming down from 1372m only one of them had actually been to Blæja.
At Blæja summit we didn't get the full view we had wanted, for two reasons; it was a little foggy towards north, and we didn't know where the rock ended and the cornice towards north started. Not perfect, but Blæja still offers fine views in all directions. Very nice.
The descent back down to the car gave us 1100 metres of continuous downhill skiing, and with excellent snow in the upper 1000 metres. Unfortunately there was a touch of crust in the lower 100+ metres, and for an amateur skier like me it gives problems. Adding to this, I had problems with one of my bindings and lost the ski three times (it simply fell off). But all in all it was very enjoyable skiing.