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Skjerdingen from
Krogsætra (ski) Skjerdingen |
| Estimated net time | 3-3½ hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties, but some care should be shown with respect to cornices at the summit plateau during winter. |
| Drinking water | No access to running water during winter. During spring there will be running water in the small streams crossing the forest road the first 500 metres. |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route. |
| Parking | Room for 3-4 cars at trail head. Some more places available close to trail head. |
| Start height | 210 metres |
| Vertical metres | 851 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 7.8 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. 9.5 km after leaving Eidet you get to the Skjerdingen trail head. There is a sign on the left hand side of the road, but this can be difficult to see if there's lots of snow.
Start skiing by following the forest road on the left (north) side of the road. You start by skiing north for 100 metres. The forest road then makes a 90° left (west), and you continue in this direction for 550 metres. You now have a forest road going up to your right (there is also a forest road branching off to the right further down; stay away from this) as well as the one continuing straight ahead. Turn right, and continue 170 metres. Here you will see a large red "F" painted on a rock, pointing left (north). Follow this sign and find the best route through the forest for the next couple of hundred metres. After you get out of the forest you will be able to see the summit, and you follow the best route upwards. The first part is relatively flat, then a steeper hill before it gets flatter up to the final steep hill up to the summit. After this final hill there is another 550 metres of gradually flatter terrain to ski, until you get to the large summit cairn, where you can find a registration book.
There are big cornices building up on all sides except the south side of the summit plateau (where you ascended), so don't walk too close to the edge. These cornices also prevent you from having an easy crossing to the point 1069.
The descent is best done via the ascent route.
On this very fine Friday Sigurd and I did an evening hike to Skjerdingen. We were able to put on skis/snow shoes 50 metres from the road and ski all the way to the summit. The streams crossing the forest road had to be crossed carefully, and there were a fair bit of stones sticking up through the snow, but there was sufficient snow for OK skiing. Descending through the forest above the forest road was a little cumbersome because of rotten snow.
There had been skies on Skjerdingen every day this week except Monday (according to summit registration book), but I suspect this week-end will be the last days this season with OK skiing to Skjerdingen.
Sigurd and I skied Skjerdingen on a nice Sunday. We met lots of other skiers when descending. Very nice snow.
Photos 26.02.2012
My colleague Marc, who is spending one year in Ålesund as part of his career development programme, and I had agreed that he ought to hike a mountain during winter without ascending with the aid of a ski-lift. Since he was going to snowboard down, and hence ascend with the aid of snow shoes, I didn't want to take on a too high mountain the first time. I considered several mountains, and after some discussions we concluded that Skjerdingen would be a good candidate (a good view to both sea, fjord and mountains, a relatively short drive from Ålesund/Brattvåg, and continues downhill slopes suitable for snowboard).
We agreed at work on Friday afternoon to have a go this Saturday afternoon, and to meet at the petrol station by Eidet at 13:45. We then drove to trail head just past Krogsætra, and started ascending at 14:10. The morning had been excellent, with clear sky, but by now it was a little hazy. But no wind, so there was no reason to complain about the weather.
Walking up the forest road proved that Marc was going to get a tougher time getting to the top than me; the snow shoes were breaking through the snow in some places where my skies where doing fine (even tough I'm considerably heavier than Marc). By the time we got to the final steep part up to the summit Marc was starting to feel the hard work and a rest was required. And up the final hill, with snow shoes sometimes breaking through and sometimes sliding downwards he had to put in a lot of determination (which he did!). At the summit we had a small chocolate each, signed the registration book, worked the cameras, before preparing for the descent.
We new the upper part of the descent was going to be a bit bumpy, based on the fact that the snow had been blown into relatively hard waves. After having past this section, Marc in fine style and me partly skiing and partly sliding down, we got into an area of very enjoyable conditions. This lasted all the way down to the forest, allowing in particular Marc to excel on his snowboard (I'm still "learning to ski" as opposed to "skiing").
Down in the forest the snow was quite rotten, and when Marc had to take off his snowboard in order to walk back up a few metres he continuously fell into the snow to his waist. Hard work! Down the forest road we had to stop three times and cross small streams crossing the road; Marc had suggested on the way up that he should build small ramps at each of these crossings to allow him to jump across on the descent, and he was now regretting not having done that.
Three hours after we left the car we were back down, and drove straight to the Eidet supermarket for another chocolate and a Coke, before heading back to my house for bacalao and suitable drinks, after a very enjoyable day out.