Estimated net time	2½-3 hours
Difficulty	No difficulties, but most of the hike is off-path.
Drinking water	Access to drinking water from a couple of small streams between Blåfjellet and Gnuen.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the route (April 2009).
Parking	Room for 2-3 cars at trail head.
Start height	177 metres
Vertical metres	625 metres for the roundtrip
Trip distance	7.4 km
GPS-file	X
Map
Route photo	The exit to Øvre Nakken from Nakkedalen road, next to the old garage.   Trail head and parking for Grøtfjellet, at Øvre Nakken.   Fork right at this forest road junction, immediately after old stone buildings.   Start of vague path to Grøtfjellet.

From Ålesund drive road E39 east, and then onto road 661 towards Vatne and Brattvåg. When you get to the intersection of roads 659 and 661 by Eidet (Tennfjord) turn right towards Vatne, and continue from Vatne towards Fiksdal. 11.1 km after leaving Eidet you get to the Haram-Vestnes municipality border by Reset, and the road continues downhill into Nakkedalen. 5.3 km after the highest point of the road (16.4 km from Eidet) you see an old garage on your left. Turn left onto the road that runs uphill immediately after the garage. Follow this road 1.0 km uphill. Here the road does a sharp right up to a farm, and there is a forest road that continues in the same direction as you have been driving. Find parking along the forest road, and make sure you don't block the forest road for tractors.

Start walking by following the forest road 400 metres in a western direction. Almost immediately after having passed a couple of old stone buildings another forest road forks off to the right; turn right here. Continue north/north-east along the forest road for 250 metres until you get to a fence. Just in front of this fence you turn left and follow a vague path uphill through the forest. The path is very vague, almost non-existent, but you just head uphill through this short section of forest. When you get above the forest and out in the open after approximately 250 metres, you will see Grøtfjellet to your west. It is worth making a mental note of where you came out of the forest, because you will be walking back down this same section when you return.

800 metres to you west you will see a small top, Gnuen. Aim right (north) of this and continue more or less directly west to the summit of Grøtfjellet. There is no proper path so you need to find the best route, but this is pretty obvious. The summit is marked by a proper cairn, but the actual highest point is located a little further west (~170 metres, or so).

From Grøtfjellet you will see Blåfjellet 1.1 km to the south. Find your best route down to the saddle between the two tops, and ascend Blåfjellet where it seems best. Again, the route is very obvious. From Blåfjellet again aim for Gnuen, passing it on the right side (south). From here follow your ascent route back to the car, making sure you don't miss the descent route down through the forest.

25. April 2009

After my morning hike to Skulstadhornet it was work in the garden on the agenda. But after a couple of hours of building a stone wall on this nice and warm Saturday I decided I deserved something better than carrying stones and mixing concrete, so I decided to go for a mid-day hike to some new mountain. Earlier in the week I had had a look at what Vestnes mountain of moderate height I still had to do, so the choice of Grøtfjellet and Blåfjellet was a simple call to make.

I was ready to start my hike from Øvre Nakken at 13:20, and walked happily up along the forest road. I had brought my book about Vestnes mountains, but it caused some confusion with respect to the route; it mentions the old stone buildings, but isn't very clear on whether you should walk 10-15 minutes from the car or from the stone buildings before you turn right. Also, I had only walked for five minutes when I got to these buildings (time estimates are in general not very useful; use distances, coordinates, altitude or "permanent" objects as references!). Anyway, I eventually decided to turn right just after the old buildings, and when I got to the fence I was pretty sure I had made the correct decision. The hike through the forest wasn't long at all, and once above the forest I had a good view of the route ahead of me.

The walking up to and past Gnuen was a bit strenuous, with no path and plenty of soft grass and heather. Along here I also had to make a decision about my route higher up since it was still plenty of snow above 500 metres, and I wasn't sure how rotten it would be. After having tested the first patch of snow I concluded the snow would be acceptable to cross, and more or less followed a direct route to the summit.

From the summit I made for a direct route across to Blåfjellet. On my way down from Grøtfjellet I fell through the soft snow just before coming off the snow, and got a fairly bad cut on my knee when I landed on "dry" land. After some quick first-aid services I was ready to proceed, without any big problems.

At Blåfjellet the views were limited by the hazy conditions that had dominated the area the whole day, which spoiled most of the nice views, but it was a fairly sunny and nice day, making this an enjoyable hike anyway. After taking some photos I headed back down to the car, and found my way home for some more work in the garden.

Photos 25.04.2009