The whole route is done on forest road and path.
Verahornet trail head by Egge.
Start of path to Verahornet, by farm at Egge.
| Verahornet from Egge Verahornet |
| Estimated net time | 1½-2 hours | ||
| Difficulty |
No difficulties. The whole route is done on forest road and path. |
||
| Drinking water | Unknown. | ||
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route (February 2011). | ||
| Parking | Room for 2-3 cars by trail head. | ||
| Start height | 185 metres | ||
| Vertical metres | 335 metres for the roundtrip. | ||
| Trip distance | 3.2 km | ||
| GPS-file | X | ||
| Map |
|
||
| Route photo |
| ||
From Ålesund drive east on road E39, to Sjøholt. In Sjøholt centre turn left where signed for Solnørdalen. Turn right in the T-junction after 50 metres, and then turn left after another 50 metres, onto the road Solnørdalvegen. Follow this road as it zigzags uphill for 1.1 km, an turn right after you have passed a cylindrical building on your left hand side. Drive this road 1.2 km until you have a small car park on the left hand side, next to an old birch. Park here. The road continues uphill to a farm, but this is a private road.
Start walking by following the road up to the farm, and then turn left immediately after the barn. Walk across to the forest and follow the path through the spruce forest. This path will take you all the way to the summit, through a couple of birch forests, before the open area higher up. The summit is marked by a trigonometric point, and this point is most probably higher than the point where the cairn is located.
Descend by reversing your ascent route.
My initial plan was to hike a local top this Sunday, but since the weather was gorgeous I couldn't resist the temptation of hiking a new mountain. I had ditched Verahornet the previous week-end, and instead hiked Bolleberget, but today I would definitely pay Verahornet a visit.
At trail head I was pleased to see that the hike started off with a ploughed road, meaning I didn't have to put on my snow shoes right from the beginning, but already up by the farm there was plenty of snow, calling for snow shoes to come on. I noticed a fair amount of foot prints through the snow, and started getting ideas that maybe they would take me all the way to the summit, and giving me an easy day in terms of navigation. After only 50 metres or so, as I entered the spruce forest, I had to take the snow shoes off, as there was no snow through the forest. I didn't give this much of a thought, only thinking that I would put the snow shoes back on when I got out of the forest. But coming out of the forest I could see that a lot of people had made the hike the last week or two, so there was no need to put the snow shoes back on. No problems for me ...
As I was taking a photo from above the spruce forest another hiker approached from below. We talked a little, and I got confirmation that the track I was on was identical to the summer path, and he also confirmed that where I had parked my car was indeed a small car park. He, and his dog, stayed a few metres ahead of me all the way to the summit, and here we had a long chat about mountains, skiing and various routes in the area. After a while I asked him if the point with the cairn is higher than the point where the trigonometric point is located, but he wasn't sure. So I decided to walk across, despite none having made it across there after the last snow fall. I used this point for taking my photos, which allowed me to get out of the way of the trigonometric point, but after having studied maps and analyzed my own GPS readings I'm convinced the point with the trigonometric point is indeed the summit.
When I returned to the summit my hiking mate was still there, and we chatted a
little more, before we started the descent. A little below the summit we met a
third hiker, enjoying the warm sun and fantastic views, and after a few phrases
I kept a good pace back down to the car.
Photos 20.02.2011