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 10.7 km
from the ferry port. Turn right onto a forest road just before a bridge and
drive 500 metres to the upper farm. Turn sharp left here and pay toll (NOK 10 by
2011). Drive another 1.4 km and park where the road ends.
Start walking by following the path approximately 1.3 km up to the two cabins at
Standalsætra. Continue another 200 metres and make sure you fork left when the
path forks. Cross the bridge after another 50 metres and then continue
approximately 2.2 km on the path marked with red "T"s from Standalsætra,
to altitude 680 metres. Turn right and leave the path, and head up the
steep grassy slopes, making sure you stay right of the large area of slab. When
you have ascended a little you will find a vague path, which will take you up
towards the rocky area on the right hand side of the grassy slopes. Follow this
line of small pinnacles north-west, up to the saddle between Romedalstinden and
Storkopptindane, mostly on a vague path.
When you reach the saddle turn left and proceed on or on the right hand side of
the ridge towards the pinnacle at the end of the horizontal part of the ridge.
Immediately after having passed the ridge cut across to the left hand side of
the ridge. Continue upwards a little to the left of the ridge. You will find
sporadic traces of previous foot-steps. When you get up to the horizontal summit
ridge proceed to the summit by staying on top of the ridge. Note that the whole
ascent from the saddle is very exposed, but there are no difficult climbing
moves required. The summit is marked by a small cairn and an old trigonometric
point marker. There is also likely to be a summit registration book inside a
metal container.
From Romedalstinden descend back to the saddle and continue along the ridge
towards Storkopptindane. When you get close to the summit continue past the
summit a little below it on the left hand side of the ridge. Then switch-back
towards the ridge. You are now faced with two slightly difficult climbing moves,
but there is minimal exposure. Both of them offers fairly good hand holds on dry
rock, and both of them involves getting up onto small plateaus 1.5-2 metres
high. Then there are only a few metres to the summit, which is marked by a small
cairn.
Descend by walking back down to the saddle between Storkopptindane and
Romedalstinden, and then follow your ascent route back down to your car.
11. August 2011
After another number of miserable days weather wise this Thursday had had a good
forecast for a couple of days, and I had asked Arnt if he wanted to join me for
an Ørsta hike. He was indeed interested, and despite already having been to
Romedalstinden he suggested we visited this fine top.
I met Arnt at Ytre-Standal straight from work and we drove up to trail head
together. Here we were a little surprised to see two other cars, but we soon
found out that they belonged to people picking blueberry. After having passed
the last couple around Standasætra we didn't expect to see any other humans.
We kept a fine pace up along the path, and then took on the steep south-east
slopes of Romedalstinden. These 500 vertical metres are technically easy, but
strenuous and some care is required when you get above the grass because of a
fair bit of loose stones. After reaching the saddle between Romedalstinden and
Storkopptindane we stopped for a few minutes to admire the view of the ridge
scramble we had ahead of us. Unfortunately there was some fog, which mainly
disappeared by the time we reached the summit.
Moving along the first part of the ridge, to the point where one passes the
pinnacle and move across to the left side of the ridge, was mostly straight
forward. But already here I realised this would be a tough day for me in terms
of exposure. I simply did not feel in mental shape. But having Arnt lead the way
both helped me to find the best route and was a mental help, so I moved along
but not terribly fast. On our way up towards the first top I had several small
problems, but never had to consider whether to turn around or not; it was more a
question of taking my time and composing myself a number of times. Once up on
the first top we decided to take some photos of each other crossing the very
exposed walk across the "bridge". Arnt went first, in fine style, followed by a
much more careful me.
At the summit we were mainly very happy with the views and the fine mountain we
had climbed, but I still had some reservations when thinking of the descent.
Unfortunately the fog didn't lift completely so the views to neighbour mountains
was a bit limited, but still impressive.
When Arnt suggested we included Storkopptindane before descending I was a bit
reluctant, but agreed to come along and possibly turn around if I didn't feel
comfortable. But first I had to tackle the descent back down to the saddle.
Descending is usually more difficult than ascending, but it seemed my head for
height had been improved during my ascent, so I actually descended much more
comfortable than I had ascended, and started to feel much more happy with
myself.
Back at the saddle we met three other hikers, to our surprise, and after having
talked with them for a couple of minutes we continued towards Storkopptindane.
The ascent of Storkopptindane had some minor navigational challenges, and then
two slightly difficult climbing moves just below the summit. After some
exploring of possibilities we both climbed these obstacles without much
difficulties, and could set our feet at the summit. By now there was much less
fog and we had a fantastic 360° view, including a good view to most of the climb
to Romedalstinden.
After having descended from Storkopptindane, and for me with some difficulties,
Arnt decided to visit also the next of the many Storkopptindane tops/pinnacles,
but I was already partly on my way towards the saddle and decided that enough
was enough. Which gave me the chance to take a couple of photos of Arnt on top
of this second Storkopptindane top.
The rest of the descent was done in high spirit, and included a fine view of the
other three hikers moving along Romedalstinden's summit ridge. The descent also
included some confusion about where I had left my walking poles on the way up,
and me learning that it's a good idea to log a way-point on the GPS if leaving
things to be picked up during descent.
Back at Ytre-Standal we parted, and I drove as quickly as I could back to the
ferry at Festøy. Unfortunately the ferry had just left so I had to wait 50
minutes for the next ferry. If someone had been running a kiosk at the ferry
port they would have made good money on me this evening. But the wait gave me
the opportunity to take some notes and reflect on today's hike, and in
particular the fact that on this day I would never had made it to the summit
without the encouragements, help and patient of Arnt.
Photos 11.08.2011
The route up Romedalstinden east slopes, and summit ridge.
The upper part of the route to Romedalstinden.
The route from Romedalstinden's north ridge to Storkopptindane.