Estimated net time	3-4 hours
Difficulty	No difficulties, but be aware of the cornices towards west at the summit. There are also cornices towards both east and west along the wide ridge between Heihornet and the summit.
Drinking water	No access to drinking water during winter, but during spring some of the streams along the first part of the route is likely to give access to water.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the route (April 2010).
Parking	Room for several cars at car park by trail head.
Start height	321 metres
Vertical metres	985 metres for the roundtrip.
Trip distance	10.0 km
GPS-file	X
Map		Google Interactive Map
Route photo	Start of skiing route to Medhornet, from Stavseng, and route towards Heihornet.   Turn right, off the forest road, when you have Stavsengsætra down on your left.

Two of the potential approaches for the trail head at Stavseng are

[a]

If driving from Ålesund follow road E136 towards Sjøholt. At Sjøholt turn right towards "Geiranger" and "Stordal" onto road 650. Follow this road for 29.7 km (you get to the 90° left turn at Stordal after 17.7 km), and turn right up a gravel road (this is the second of two roads going off to the right, separated by just over 100 metres). Drive 180 metres up this road and find parking at the car park.

[b]

If arriving from the Stranda-Liabygda ferry drive 3.2 km from the ferry port at Gravaneset. Turn left when you meet road 650 and drive 1.6 km, and turn left onto a gravel road (this is the first of two roads going off to the left, separated by just over 100 metres). Drive 180 metres up this road and find parking at the car park.

From the car park ski across the field on the right hand side of the right-most (east-most) stream. When you get above the farm and get to a mountain road, turn sharp left and follow the mountain road as it zigzags uphill. 150 metres after the sharp left the road makes a sharp right. 400 metres later it does a sharp left, then a sharp right 200 metres later, and finally a sharp left a little over 100 metres later. Ski another 130 metres and you're just above Stavsengsætra (two old wooden buildings below you, on your left hand side). Turn right when you have Stavsengsætra on your left, and head north-west for 100 metres, before heading directly north.

You should aim for the left hand side of the valley between Heihornet and Kopphornet, and then turn left a little before you get to the flatter section of the valley. Head north/north-west towards Heihornet, and from here continue along the wide ridge all the way to the summit. There is a big cairn a little north of the summit.

The descent is best done by reversing the ascent route.

11. April 2010

After the fantastic skiing to Eidskyrkja the day before I was keen on more skiing this Sunday, but since I couldn't make up my mind I ended up doing a morning hike to Heimste Synnalandshornet together with Elisabeth. During breakfast, after the hike, I got more and more keen on the skiing and by 10-ish I made my mind up to ski Medhornet.

I started skiing from Stavseng at 11:35, and was very anxious that I had left it too late in the day for the snow to be of acceptable quality. What might save the day was the fact that it was quite cloudy so the snow wouldn't be melting as rapidly as during the later hours of the sunny yesterday. As I got above the forest road and started to break my own tracks I soon found out that skiing today could be a challenge; there was a semi-soft crust giving way as I made my way towards the saddle between Heihornet and Kopphornet. But when I got above ~800 metres things changed and I found snow I knew would be very nice for my descent.

At the summit I struggled a little to find the best place to take photos because of what I assume was large cornices, and these cornices also made me wonder about the exact location of the summit. What I did conclude was that the summit cairn is not located at the summit, but probably around 60 metres further north/north-west.

Since the descent back to Heihornet would require some 50 vertical metres of ascent I decided to ski back to Heihornet with the skins left on the skis; I simply couldn't be bothered doing required ascent with no grip. Descending with skins on the skis means a much larger turning radius than without skins, but the the whole ridge is more than wide enough to allow this kind of skiing. At Heihornet I took off the skins and could enjoy a couple of hundred vertical metres of first class snow. But as I started to turn right (south-west) at around 830 metres there was no more fun. From here on the snow rapidly got rotten, and I sunk deep into the snow and had to ski through large quantities of wet and transformed snow. No fun.

Back at the forest road life got easier and I got relax a little while skiing back down to the car.
Photos 11.04.2010