Trail head and overview of route to Storlihornet from Pusken.
| Storlihornet from
Pusken Storlihornet |
| Estimated net time | 2½-3 hours | ||
| Difficulty | The hike is more cumbersome than difficult, as long as you avoid the cliff bands / sections of slab, caused by bush and also sections of marsh. | ||
| Drinking water | There are two reliable sources of drinking water; the river at the start of the hike, and the river at the end of the gravel road. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (August 2012). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars at car park by trail head. | ||
| Start height | 392 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 640 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 7.0 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Ålesund drive road E39 to Sjøholt. Drive through Sjøholt centre, and turn right onto road 650, signed for "Geiranger" and "Stordal". From this junction drive 23.8 km, passing through the village Stordal after 18 km, and turn left where signed for "Overøye". Drive another 9.1 km to the ski-centre, and from here yet another 2.3 km into the valley, ignoring any roads forking left or right. You cross a narrow bridge after approximately 1.8 km. Find parking on the left hand side of the road just before a road goes off left across a bridge.
Before you start your hike you should study the terrain of Storlihornet's south slopes, and try to find a route avoiding as much bush as possible.
Start your hike by crossing the bridge and then follow the gravel road into the valley for 1.2 km, and cross the concrete foot bridge. From here you need to find the best possible route up the south slopes, bearing two things in mind; avoid bush, and avoid the cliff band at approximately 700 metres. Note that the path that turns right after the bridge assumes you raise less than 1m above ground level (like sheep), so the best advice is to stick with what you observed from trail head.
When you get higher up there are a number of gentle cliff bands and sections of slab, and both should be avoided by doing small de-tours around these more difficult sections. In general the terrain is steep but not difficult, and when you get close to the summit it is easy walking across to the summit cairn.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
Another nice day so I decided to leave work at four and do a hike requiring some driving. For some reason I had got Storlihornet into my head a few days earlier so I more or less didn't have much choice on where to go. I left Brattvåg just after four, on a sunny and nice afternoon, and was very surprised to find it all grey when I got inside the Reme tunnels. My first thought was to re-plan my evening, but this was soon overcome by "I have decided to hike Storlihornet tonight".
At the trail head at Pusken the weather was quite depressing, given the nice conditions I had left behind, and it had also started to rain a little. And then there was a definite danger of fog coming drifting in. But I was well motivated and was soon on my way along the gravel road. At the end of the road, and after having crossed the bridge, I found paths going in either direction along the river, and chose to follow the one going right. But after only a few metres it became obvious to me that this path is not for humans but for sheep, since it runs through fairly dense bush. I therefore left the path and instead aimed for whatever piece of land I could find where there was no bush. This took me a little back and forth and around, but the general uphill progress was acceptable.
By the time I got close to the cliff band around 700 metres I was soaking wet as I hadn't brought any water proofs, but the temperature was reasonable so there was no danger I would start to freeze. I decided the ascend on the left hand side of the cliff band, which gave me some steep sections of grass, but nothing that couldn't be done with a little help of the hands here and there. I was actually more concerned about the fog that drifted in since that would take away the reminder of potentially nice views.
At the summit I got a foggy view of Øverøystolen, and that was about it. Hence my summit stay was short, and I started my descent, which deliberately was a more eastern route than my ascent to see if I could find slightly less steep terrain. This worked OK, apart from a fall causing a cut in my finger. But this route didn't keep me clear of the bush, which I more or less just ploughed through, not bothering much about de-tours to find more open terrain.
Getting back to the bridge and the gravel road was a bit of a relief, and I was by now definitely look forward to get back to the car and get changed into dry clothes.