Gregorshornet trail head.
Parts of skiing-route to Gregorshornet.
| Gregorshornet from
Røyset (ski) Gregorshornet |
| Estimated net time | 3-3½ hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | Not likely to be any access to running water during winter. | ||
| GSM coverage | A section mid-way is without coverage, else OK (December 2008). | ||
| Parking | Room for a few cars at trail head, next to a double garage, if snow has been cleared. If not you will have to park further down along the road. | ||
| Start height | 240 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 875 metres for the roundtrip | ||
| Trip distance | 7.5 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Ålesund drive road E136 towards Sjøholt. At Sjøholt turn right towards "Geiranger" and "Stordal" onto road 650. Follow this road for 26.7 km and find a double garage on your left hand side. Park here. In the likely event that you cannot park here because snow hasn't been cleared you can go back down the road approximately 300 metres to the nearest farm. Here you are likely to find space for one or two cars at either side of the road.
From the double garage ski up the forest road. When you see some old farm buildings up on your left (Røysetsætra) continue east. After you have passed through an opening in the fence and a small group of spruce trees turn a little left, skiing north-east. You will now see a soft ridge up on your left hand side. Ski around the foot of this ridge and aim north where you find the most suitable terrain. Continue uphill to the summit plateau of Gregorshornet. It is not quite obvious what is the actual highest point, and there is no cairn.
The descent follows the ascent route.
Skiing in very nice conditions and mostly very good snow, together with Arild, Elisabeth and Lene.
I was keen on skiing some mountain this Sunday, but needed to find a mountain off the coast which had a starting point at least above 200 metres in order to be able to ski from trail head. I also wanted to avoid ferries. After studying the map of the Stordal area my eyes fell on Gregorshornet. After having Google'd "Gregorshornet" I found that Svein Myhre (Fjellinordvest) had a trip report for this mountain, so I decided to have a go.
After an hour's drive from home I located the trail head. Unfortunately I wasn't able to park there since the place was full of snow. I therefore had to drive back down the road a few hundred metres, and on the opposite side of the road I found a suitable place to park. From here I walked back up to the trail head and started skiing up the forest road. Someone had skied up here a few days before me, and I decided to follow these tracks, assuming they were heading for Gregorshornet.
Today the snow was rock hard and I wasn't looking forward to descend down this snow. Anyway, no need to worry about this now. When I got above the forest the snow was gradually turning into powder, and I started to look forward to an enjoyable descent. Also adding to the joy was the clear sky and the lack of wind.
At the summit I was blessed with a sky free of clouds, zero wind, and excellent views towards Stordal and Ørsta mountains. Fantastic!
The descent down to approximately 600 metres was done on very good snow. But from here on I was struggling with first a nasty crust and then very hard snow. I therefore decided to put on the skins again, and this proved to be a wise move, allowing me to have enough friction to be able to ski very controlled through the birch forest and down the forest road.