| Sukkertoppen traverse
from Trollråsa Sukkertoppen |
| Estimated net time | 1½-2 hours |
| Difficulty | "Trollråsa" is a very steep route, but not difficult. Some people will probably feel uncomfortable in some sections. The descent on the trade route towards east has no difficulties. |
| Drinking water | No access to drinking water. |
| GSM coverage | Unknown. |
| Parking | Room for many cars at trail head, by the Hessa football stadium. |
| Start height | 12 metres |
| Vertical metres | 310 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 3.0 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
From Ålesund drive west, across the island Aspøya, and then towards Hessa. When you get to the round-about at Hessa turn right and continue to where the road ends by Hessa football stadium, approximately 2.3 km from the round-about. Find parking here.
Start hiking from Hessa stadium by walking approximately 650 metres along the gravel road that circumvents Sukkertoppen clock-wise. You are now at the start point of "Trollråsa". Then turn right from the road and walk directly towards the foot of Sukkertoppen. The path itself might be a little hard to locate down in the flat section but as soon as you get to the point where the terrain gets steeper you will see the path. Continue up-hill on this path, more or less directly south. The path is marked by red plastic bands. At height ~180 metres the path turns left and moves directly east to the summit of Sukkertoppen.
From Sukkertoppen summit continue east down the trade route towards Hessa primary school. Fro here you have to follow the road back to your car.
I was engaged in a workshop in Ålesund this week, and we had visitors from near and far. Hence I took the opportunity to invite the visitors for a hike, with the intention of doing Straumshornet. But with pretty miserable weather this Thursday afternoon we decided to do Sukkertoppen via Trollråsa instead, and only Mike and Spiros were up for the challenge.
Having hiked Trollråsa only once before I wasn't sure on exactly where the path starts so decided to call someone who definitely knows. After a couple of calls I got hold of Olav, who suggested he would join us for the hike, which meant we would be in the best hands in terms of navigation. This also gave us the opportunity for a Sukkertoppen traverse since we could leave one car by Hessa school and one by Hessa football stadium.
We picked up Olav a little after 5pm, and after some change of clothes we were on our way. By now the rain had stopped, but it was still grey and also a little windy.
The first part of Trollråsa was just as I remembered it from my previous hike five years ago, but the scrambling sections above the Trollråsa registration point was definitely more challenging than I could recall, and with wet and slippery rock a couple of the more difficult places definitely called for some concentration. But Olav has done this route a few hundred times so was able to give advice on hidden hand holds whenever us Trollråsa novices got into trouble, and after approximately 45 minutes of enjoyable scrambling we hit the summit. After the more difficult sections Olav had to leave us behind since he had an appointment with his family to watch Ålesund play a Europe qualifier, but the upper part of the hike is a straight forward walk so his guidance was definitely not called for.
At the summit we spent some time taking photos, but with grey conditions and a fairly windy summit we didn't stop for long. Instead we took on the easy descent down to Hessa school, meeting several people along the way. We were back at the car just as it started to rain, at 7pm, having enjoyed a good dose of fresh air and some fine challenges in terms of scrambling.
I had never been to the summit of Sukkertoppen, so I was keen to join Arnt for a hike on his home turf. We left work a little after 4pm and drove two cars to Hessa. Close to the Hessa primary school we parked Arnt's car, and then continued in my car down to the football stadiums. After having put on appropriate clothes for the wet and windy conditions we proceeded along the gravel road and ascended up Trollråsa, with Arnt giving me some challenges scrambling-wise along the way. We both signed the registration book around mid-way along Trollråsa, and then continued to the summit. From the summit we headed down east to Hessa school, and then drove Arnt's car back to trail head to pick up my car.