| Nysæternakken from
Nysætra (ski) Nysæternakken |
| Estimated net time | 1½-2 hours | ||
| Difficulty | No difficulties. | ||
| Drinking water | No stable access to running water during winter. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (October 2010). | ||
| Parking | Room for many cars at car park by trail head. | ||
| Start height | 330 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 220 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 4.8 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Ålesund drive road E136 east to Sjøholt. After Sjøholt centre continue on road E136, 7.5 km from the road 650 exit. Turn left and find parking in front of the cafeteria "Fjellstova".
From "Fjellstova" walk back towards Sjøholt, along road E136, 100 metres. Turn left (east) onto a mountain road, which is likely to be fine for skiing. Continue along this mountain road 1.0 km, and turn left (north-east) when you get to some colourful old buildings on your right hand side. Cross the small stream and head north-east for approximately 650 metres. Then turn left and head north towards the summit, finding your best route in order to avoid the trees. The summit is not marked in any visible way when there is snow on the ground.
The descent is best done by reversing the ascent route.
It had been snowing most of the week, and this Saturday Sigurd and me decided to kick off the skiing season. My initial plan was to do an easy Ørsta mountain, but because of poor visibility a several hours drive wasn't terribly tempting, and we therefore ended up with Ørskogfjellet. And since I hadn't been to Nysæternakken this seemed a good candidate.
While preparing our skis at Fjellstova we chatted a little with the manager of Fjellstova, and he kindly gave us a good route description. When we started skiing it was snowing heavily, but while skiing along the mountain road on the south side of Nysæternakken the snowing stopped, but the visibility was still very poor. And this poor visibility was of some concern when we reached the end of the mountain road and were starting the ascent towards the summit. We messed around a little, first aiming for a an eastern route around the forest, but last minute we changed our minds and headed uphill in a more more direct route. This direct route meant we had to ascend some small cliff bands, but we reasoned they could either be climbed or passed without much of a de-tour. We ended up taking on the cliff bands, and apart from having to take off our skis for a short stretch it was straight forward.
Above the cliff bands we had some easy skiing to the summit, and by now the fog had lifted considerably and we were enjoying some sun. At the summit there was no wind, and the snow was very nice powder. Unfortunately, and something we were mentally well prepared for, there was no base under the powder, so our descent would rely on heather and grass under the snow if our skis were to be usable also later in the season (writing this, a little more than a week later, with my whole right leg in plaster, "later in the season" seems a long shot away).
After taking some summit photos and Sigurd changing from cross country skis to snowboard, we took on the descent. For me, with skis, it was quite enjoyable, but for Sigurd's snowboard it was too much powder, making him sink in and stop as soon as the terrain got a little flatter. Back down in the flat section Sigurd changed back to skis and we had a comfortable glide back down to Fjellstova, along the mountain road.