Start of route to Melshornet from Helgatun.
| Melshornet from
Helgatun (ski) Melshornet |
| Estimated net time | 1-2 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No access to running water during winter. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (January 2012). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars at car park by trail head if ploughed. Alternatively park along the road. | ||
| Start height | 252 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 555 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 6.3 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Ålesund drive road E39 south towards Bergen, and get the ferry from Solevåg to Festøy. From Festøy follow road E39 in the direction of Ørsta and Volda. In Volda continue on road 551 when E39 turns right for the ferry, to the roundabout where 551 turns right towards the tunnel. This roundabout is approximately 47.2 km from the ferry port at Festøy. Continue straight through the roundabout, following signs for Vikebygda, and drive 4.9 km. You will see the wooden buildings of Helgatun on the left hand side of the road, and the trail head is a few tens of metres after these buildings. Park on the car park at the right hand side of the road, or along the road. This area can be very busy on nice week-ends.
Start skiing by following the obvious route through the forest. This "street" is ~10m wide and avoids the dense forest you will find on either side. When you get up to a couple of cabins at approximately 400m turn a little left, and then turn a little right at 500m. Ski up a small hill, and then turn left towards the summit. The summit is marked by a couple of small cairns, and there is a larger cairn a little to the north of the summit.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
I hadn't really had any good opportunities for hiking any new mountains so far this year, so I decided to ski Melshornet this Saturday. The decision was made early in the week, and I was clear to myself that the hike would be done even if the weather was not good.
When I drove from home a little before 8:30 in the morning the sky was pretty grey, but things looked OK down to approximately 1000m. A more disturbing thing was the brisk wind when I crossed Storfjorden on the ferry, so I mentally started to prepare myself for a rough day to Melshornet. But at the trail head at Krøvelseidet things look promising and I got a bit more optimistic, which in turn got a small set-back when I chatted with two skiers who came down from the summit as I was about to start.
I didn't expect the route up from trail head to be machined this early in the season, but it was, giving me very easy skiing up to approximately 400m. From here it was easy to follow the tracks towards the summit, but the weather was turning to the worse with snow and wind, making visibility quite poor. I was also struggling with a blister on my left foot, making sure I would remember to protect this area with some sports tape on my next hike. The blister meant I had to ski at a moderate pace, which was no issue since this really was a short hike.
There were three other skiers at the summit when I arrived, or more precisely they were by the main cairn a few tens of metres north of the summit. I suspect this point holds a summit registration book, since also the hiker who arrived the summit a little after me skied directly to the main cairn. None of the other skiers stayed long, and I had no intention to have a long summit stay myself, given the strong wind and poor visibility. So after having changed into dry upper clothes, taken the skins off the skis, and taken a couple of photos I started my descent.
The snow was quite good for downhill skiing, but the visibility was still poor allowing for very little contrast on the snow. Hence (in addition to my general poor skiing abilities) I skied quite slowly until I got down to the autostrada, from where skiing was extremely easy. During the final stretch back to the car I met several other hikers, confirming my understanding that this route is very popular during winter.
Back at the car I changed into dry clothes and then headed to Ålesund to watch
my youngest son play four football matches in a children's tournament.
Photos 21.01.2012