Estimated net time	4-5 hours
Difficulty	The lower section is wet at times, but not difficult. When you leave the path and follow the north ridge things get less strenuous, except for one point between Fremste Kopphornet and the summit, where you have to use your hands on a short but exposed scramble. The hand holds are good, but be careful with some loose rocks that looks like solid sock.
Drinking water	No stable access to running water.
GSM coverage	Coverage throughout the route (September 2011).
Parking	Room for several cars on a small car park by the trail head.
Start height	305 metres
Vertical metres	1015 metres for the roundtrip.
Trip distance	6.0 km
GPS-file	X (descent only)
Map		Google Interactive Map
Route photo	Nonshornet trail head in Standaldalen.   Scrambling section between Fremste Kopphornet and Nonshornet.

From Ålesund drive road E39 south towards Bergen, and get the ferry from Solevåg to Festøy. At Festøy turn left, following signs for "Standal", and drive 19.6 km from the ferry port, through the small communities at Ytre-Standal and Standal, and up into Standaldalen valley. Look for wooden signs for "Sæbø" and "Nøvedalen" on the left hand side of the road, and find parking on the right hand side of the road. There is a small car park, and also possibilities for parking along the road.

Locate the path next to the mentioned signs and follow this wet path south, more or less perpendicular to the road. The path is very vague in places, but it is well worth trying to stay on the path as this will make the hike through the bush higher up much easier. When you get closer to the bush the path is marked by a few red ribbons, and from here the path should be easier to follow. Well into the bush the path turns left (south-east) and traverses horizontally.

Approximately 50 metres after you are through the bush you should leave the path and turn uphill towards the north ridge of Nonshornet. There are no paths up here, and hiking is a little strenuous in the steep grass and heather clad slopes, which are also a little wet until you get up to the ridge. Once on the ridge follow it slightly counter clock-wise. There is still no path, but there are clear indications that people have been here before you. In general the route runs a few metres on the right hand side of the ridge, up to the trigonometric point at Fremste Kopphornet.

From Fremste Kopphornet continue on the ridge, and you will get to a point which requires the use of hands at a slightly exposed point. You need to apply 2-3 scrambling moves, with good hand holds, but make sure you don't grab onto the loose rocks as opposed to solid rock. If you don't fancy this scramble you might be able to by-pass below this point, on the right hand side. From here continue along the ridge to the summit, which is marked by a cairn.

Descend by reversing your ascent route.

01. September 2011

Another day with acceptable weather forecast so I decided to try to bag an Ørsta mountain after work. Or more precisely, to bag an Ørsta mountain after my physiotherapist appointment at 15:30. The plan was to catch the 16:30 ferry from Solevåg, but since today was my first appointment with the well respected Randi Welle it turned into a long consultation, and I had to settle for the 16:50 ferry. Which in turn made me go for plan-B, Nonshornet, as opposed to the slightly longer hike to Sylvkallen, since I didn't want to risk messing around in these mountains after dark. After all, I did learn a lesson last Saturday when we turned around just below the summit of Søre Sætretind in order to make it back to the cars before it would be dark. I also learned another thing during my Søre Sætretind hike, from Per-Børge; it's a good idea to have a small torch in your back pack. So today I had brought a head lamp!

I started my hike from Standaldalen at 17:35, and met two other hikers some 100 metres above trail head. They had been to Sylvkallen, and informed me they had been messing around a little trying to find the path in the lower section of their hike. By then I had already lost the path a couple of times, but luckily I re-found it, which was particularly useful when I got to the section of bush between 550 and 650 metres, allowing me to follow a reasonable path through the bush. One of the reasons why I kept losing the path was that I didn't waste any time looking for the path, since I was very determined to get to the summit and down before dark set in. I gave myself a deadline of 19:30; if I hadn't reached the summit by then I would turn around wherever I might be. At least that was the plan ...

After having completed the bush section I soon left the path and headed uphill towards the north ridge of Nonshornet. I didn't choose the ideal place for this ascent, so ended up having to use my hands a couple of places, but nothing more difficult than one notch up on the concentration scale. By now I was very tired and I was desperate for something easier than wet and soft grass in combination with steep hills. Getting onto the firmed ground of the ridge helped, but I was very exhausted and had to rest quite frequently, and was sure I would have to turn around before the summit. At 18:30 I decided to check the altitude on my GPS, and this produced excellent news; I was now at 1000 metres and only had another 300+ vertical metres to do. And I still had an hour before having to start the descent. Very happy, but still tired.

At Fremste Kopphornet I got a good view of the rest of the route, and from here the ridge looks very nice, but with a vertical drop to to your left. If I hadn't know that the route was relatively easy I would probably have needed to compose myself properly, but I knew there was only one point with a touch of difficulty so no need to hesitate. This point turned out to be straight forward, but I could foresee people with the lack of head for height having second thoughts. After this point the rest of the ridge is a walk, but I did use my hands for balance in a couple of places. Not difficult at all, but it made you feel climbing a mountain as opposed to walking on a path.

While I was hiking along the ridge some fog had come drifting in from west, and while I was at the summit the views were very limited. Hence I didn't spend much time at the summit, and prepared to start my descent after only a few mountains, since there was little sign of the fog clearing. As I was about to put on my back pack the phone rang. It was my friend Arnt calling, who knew I would hike Nonshornet or Sylvkallen tonight. He asked where I was, and how it was, and when I reported "Nonshornet and fog" he promptly said "I know it's fog; I'm at Fingeren". He was very happy having finally made it to this fine pinnacle, solo. And I thought it was very funny that we were less than 5 km apart, on separate mountains. Adding to this, I found out the day after, my colleague Ingunn had also been in the same area at the same time, but she was in a helicopter thanks to having received a one hour tour for her 50th.

When I descended the fog lifted a little, but I never got a very good view of the neighbour mountains. Therefore I headed straight back down to the car, where the first thing I did was do check the ferry time tables. This told me that I might just catch the 20:50 ferry, which I did with a couple of minutes to spare.
Photos 01.09.2011