Lower part of skiing route to Sunndalsnipa.
| Sunndalsnipa from
Grøndalsvatnet (ski) Sunndalsnipa |
| Estimated net time | 3-4 hours. | ||
| Difficulty | No real difficulties, but there is a slightly steep section around 1100 metres which might require crampons on hard snow. Also, be careful with cornices on the east side of the south ridge. | ||
| Drinking water | No access to running water during winter. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (March 2013). | ||
| Parking | Room for several cars at the car park at the start of the summer road running on the north side of lake Grøndalsvatnet. If the car park is full you can park along the road, and in particular up the hill from the car park. | ||
| Start height | 413 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 1010 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 10.7 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From the intersection of road E39 and 60, a few hundred metres north of Grodås, drive E39 in the direction of Kvivstunnelen and Ålesund (north). Exit right towards Kalvatn after 7.9 km, and then immediately right, again signed for Kalvatn. Drive 400 metres and turn left for Nordfjordeid, and drive 10.3 km to the small car park on the right hand side of the road, where the road to Grøndalsstølen starts. Park here, or along the road if the car park is full.
Start skiing by following the tracks along the north-east shores of lake Grøndalsvatnet, and turn right up into Litlevassdalen after 300 metres. Turn a little right when you get up to the flat section of the valley, at around 650 metres, and follow the humps that comes down from Sunndalsnipa's south-east ridge. Turn left and head north-west from approximately 930 metres, and ski up the hill. The last 30 vertical metres are a little steep, and some care should be shown if the snow is hard.
Once above the steep section the rest of the route is obvious, and follows the south ridge all the way up to the large summit plateau. Just make sure you stay away from the cornices on the right (east) side of the ridge. At the summit plateau you first get to a cairn at point 1366m. From here continue 820 metres north to the unmarked summit. The trigonometric point, which is one metre lower than the summit, is located another 150 metres north.
Descend by returning down the south ridge to 1150 metres, which is just above the steep section before you got onto the ridge while ascending. Turn right and find your best route down the south slopes.
You cannot get any better invitation for skiing than an Easter Saturday with fantastic weather, and Sigurd and me were keen to make the most of it. We considered several options, but ended up on Sunndalsnipa.
The car park around trail head at the east end of lake Grøndalsvatnet was full, but we managed to find a slot on the other side of the bridge, and when we came back down there were also cars parked along the road on the north side of the bridge.
Skiing uphill was in general easy because of hard snow, which wasn't very promising for the descent, but by then we had hopes that the sun had softened the snow sufficiently to make the conditions better. The only slight challenge we had during our ascent was a short steep section, with hard snow, just above 1100 metres. And of course the flat section between point 1366m and the summit is a little boring, but with perfect weather there were no reasons to complain.
We decided to continue past the summit and the extra 200 metres to the trigonometric point, since this would give us a slightly better view towards the Sunnmøre alps towards north. From here we took a number of photos before starting our descent.
Skiing down the south ridge was OK, on hard snow without bumps, but the steeper section down from 1100m was less enjoyable because of partly frozen old tracks. Fortunately the sun had softened these tracks considerable, but for a poor skier like me it wasn't what I had hoped for. And further down the sun had done too much work and the snow was starting to get quite heavy.