Estimated net time	3½-4½ hours
Difficulty	Some care should be shown when ascending on the relatively narrow south ridge.
Drinking water	No access to running water during winter.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the route.
Parking	Room for many cars at the caravan place at Vaksvikfjellet (NOK 30 in 2007)
Start height	300 metres
Vertical metres	890 metres for the roundtrip
Trip distance	10.6 km
GPS-file	X
Map
Route photo

Drive road E39 to Sjøholt in Ørskog, and continue south-east on road 650 towards Stordal for 7.4 km. Then turn left (east) towards "Vaksvikfjellet" and drive for another 4.0 km. At the caravan park find parking (fee of NOK 30 per day, as of 2007).

Cross the road from the caravan park and head up the forest road just opposite the caravan park, in a northern direction. Pass the cabins, and aim just left of the big mast for the power line. Continue in a north/north-east direction into the middle of the valley. One can now see Høgsvora ahead.

After having passed the rounded hill (Grønlifjellet) on your right, aim for the south ridge of Høgsvora, and continue upwards on this ridge. Be aware that cornices can build up, so don't get too close to the edge. At one point along the ridge you get to a point that seems difficult to pass on the ridge. Most likely you will have to pass this obstacle by carefully skiing down below this point to the right (i.e. dropping down a few metres to the east side of the ridge), and then back up. After this it is straight forward skiing along the ridge to the summit.

From the summit start by skiing back down 70 metres or so to the south, then do a sharp right and ski in a north-western direction, loosing only a little height. You then get to the wide "normal route", which is very inviting for telemark skiing. Have fun down this slope, but make sure you stay a little to the left in the lower regions in order to have enough height before you get to the flatter areas. You'll now get back to your ascent tracks, and follow these all the way back to the car.

31. December 2007

I called Arnt the day before to check what his plans were for New Year Eve's activity. He said he had planned to do Høgsvora together with Svein, and that I was welcome to come along. It was not a difficult decision to make to say "yes, thank you".

We met at the caravan park at 10:30, and at 10:45 we were underway. The sky was clear, it was -4°C, there was no wind at trail head, and the snow was excellent (powder). And even better, to other skiers had started 20-30 minutes before us and had broken tracks. All set for a day to enjoy!

As we got onto the south ridge of Høgsvora, and the incline got steeper, I started to realise that my skins were ripe for renewal; they were both old and too narrow for my new skies. I therefore had a relatively tough climb up the ridge, having to use my arms and upper body much more than what I appreciated.

As we got to the point where the ridge makes a vertical drop we had to drop down a few metres into the valley on out east side, before climbing back up and continuing on the ridge to the summit.

At the summit the wind was quite strong and very chilling. We therefore only did the photographing, and then dropped down some 20-30 vertical metres where we sorted the skins and prepared for the descent.

I was a bit worried about the descent, since the snow was packed hard by the wind around the summit (the summit itself was icy), but after having descended only about 100 vertical metres we were in nice powder, and could let ourselves loose.

During the descent we met a number of persons ascending our descent route (the "normal route"), and it probably was something like 20 persons visiting Høgsvora this last day of 2007.

When we got back to the car I felt nice and warm after the 3 hours ski trip, and more or less straight away set off for home. Mistake! The car was really cold, and I started to freeze seriously because the wet clothes were now drying by extracting heat from my body. Well, it was a lesson learned (again), and I will in the future also have dry clothes in the car in addition to extra clothes in the back pack.

After about 15 minutes drive I called my wife to ask her to put on the sauna. The sauna was nice and warm by the time I got home, so it was straight into the sauna and a nice shower. An hour later I was out again, this time to Heimste Synnalandsheia together with Njål, Sigurd and my wife, for the annual 17:00 fireworks session at Synnalandshornet. I'm not terrible found of fireworks, but it's good to meet friends from Brattvåg, and to sample some of the liquid that is being passed around ...

Photos 31.12.2007