| Melen from Reset,
return same way Melen |
| Estimated net time | 2½-3 hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties to the top, but the ridge to the north has several exposed areas. |
| Drinking water | Unknown. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route. |
| Parking | Room for many cars at the car park at trail head. |
| Start height | 307 metres |
| Vertical metres | 510 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 5.1 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
Drive 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 one gets to the Haram-Vestnes municipality border by Reset. There is a parking place here, next to the vertically positioned boat indicating that one is now entering the Vestnes municipality.
Head for the western (left) side of the southern ridge of Melen. Make sure you don't get on the path leading to the east, but get on the path that is heading directly for Melen's summit. The small river coming down from lake Mellivatnet can at times be difficult to cross.
The route to the top is trivial, and will take you to the summit. A cairn is located a little north of the summit.
One can continue towards north, on the narrow north ridge of Melen. If so, care should be shown at several places. Alternatively one can descend back the ascent route.
As I was descending from Heimste Synnalandsheia during my morning exercise I met Bård. We had a chat about the usual things (hikes and mountains), before he mentioned that Torill's father had passed away just before Christmas. I immediately called Arnt, who confirmed the sad news. We then got to the subject of today's hiking plans. It turned out that he wasn't keen on a long drive on the extremely icy roads, so we agreed to visit a mountain somewhere between Ørskogfjellet and Ålesund. Further details to be sorted after I had had breakfast.
When I called Arnt after breakfast we agreed to do Melen, and to meet at Reset at 11:00. We turned up at 10:58 and 10:59 (!), and set off at 11:05.
The weather was really nice this Christmas Day, with blue sky and an acceptable wind, and I understood that Arnt saw the possibility for some good photos. I also looked forward to the prospect of getting some decent images with my new camera.
We kept an average pace upwards, on the semi-icy snow. At some places we fell through the crust, but for most the snow managed to carry our weight.
At the top we spent a few minutes filling our memory cards, before we headed along the ridge towards north. Because of the ice and snow we had no real determination of completing the ridge, and at crux #1 we decided enough was enough. Arnt still wanted to descend this crux, and did so in fine style. Getting back up proved a more difficult task, with no firm grips to get hold of. Eventually he went for it, and managed to jerk is upper body on to the critical large stone. From that position it was a simple task to get back up.
We headed back to the summit and started our descent back to Reset. We did decent pace back down the slopes. At one place I broke through the snow's crust and fell, but with no danger of causing any damage. When Arnt looked back to see what happened to me it was his turn to experience the snow giving way, with the same result as I had just experienced! Quite enjoyable.