The first section of the route follows excellent ski tracks from
Fylling.
The route towards the east ridge follows a forest road.
The route along the east ridge.
| Engsetfjellet from
Fylling (ski) Engsetfjellet |
| Estimated net time | 3-3½ hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water during winter. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (January 2010). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at car park by trail head. | ||
| Start height | 73 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 530 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 11.9 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From the intersection of roads E39 and E136 at the big round-about at Moa, east of Ålesund, follow road E39 east towards Trondheim/Åndalsnes for 13.4 km. Turn left here onto road 661 and drive approximately 7.2 km in the direction of Vatne/Brattvåg and turn right where signed for "Engesetdal". Follow this road 7.4 km and park on the large car park on the left hand side of the road.
Start skiing by following the forest road towards east. There are likely to be machine made tracks here. Stay on this forest road for 3.5 km, to approximately 200 metres altitude. Less than 100 metres after a ski track going off to the right you will see a forest road that runs left towards the east ridge of Engsetfjellet. Turn left onto this forest road. You can either follow the forest road as it zigzags towards the ridge or you can ski a more direct route; just make sure you stay right (east) of the forest.
When you get onto the ridge turn left and follow the ridge all the way to the summit. The summit is not marked in any way, but you will find a trigonometric point and a registration book another 100 metres west.
The descent is best done by reversing the ascent route.
During my cross country skiing around lake Svartløkvatnet three weeks earlier I saw a possibility to ascend Engsetfjellet by skiing from Fylling and ascend Engsetfjellet along its east ridge. This Sunday I finally made the decision to have a go, but because of the wind-packed snow I had experienced the day before at Oppstadhornet I decided to use cross country skis and snow shoes as opposed to telemark skis. This would allow me easy skiing the first 3.5 km, but no fun if the snow along the ridge was fine for skiing. If the snow wasn't so fine I would have a more comfortable ride using snow shoes. As it turned out I ended up having a mixed feeling about what would have been the best equipment to use; cross country was definitely the better option along the tracks, but most of the ridge had acceptable snow conditions. However, where the snow was wind-packed it was really nasty, with both bumps and even small crevasses.
The hike along the ridge was much longer than I had anticipated, and it was a
very windy experience. But the reward at the summit was nice views, although
this Sunday was pretty grey. After taking photos and signing the registration
book I headed back down to where I left my skis, and then 3.5 km of mostly
downhill (but quite flat) skiing back to the car.
Photos 17.01.2010