This weekend we drive north from
Bergen to one of the most beautiful regions in Vest-Norge, Sunnmørsalpene. The
weather forecast looks quite promising for the 4 days that we have estimated to
complete our trail running trip around the whole fjord: Hjørundfjorden rundt -
120km and ca. 6000m of positive elevation gain. We bring light backpacks and
intend to sleep in the DNT cabins on the way.
On Thursday we started running from
Barstadvik around 17:30 under a light but persistent rain. 20km and 1500m elevation
gain ahead of us and only 3-4h of light to reach Standalshytta. It gets dark
when we are only half way. It is quite challenging to find the way because
there are no clear trails in this section of the route, but thanks to the GPS
(and Tom’s knowledge on how to use it) we manage. It’s already 11PM when we
finish the last climb of the day. It has stopped raining and the perfectly full
moon is strong enough for us to continue in the dark and enjoy the beauty and
the silence of the night in this valley surrounded by towering mountains. The
last ks of downhill running with our headlamps are so much fun and magic that
we stop listening to the complaints of our legs. We are stoked and we start
singing and screaming while we make our way through rivers, trails and rocky
sections. Finally we get to the cabin around 0:30AM and we experience one of
the first setbacks of the trip (not the last one though). The cabin is
“ubetjent” and we have forgotten the key in the car. The guys are convinced of
just sleeping outside with our thin liners but after some teamwork and using a
bit of brain power we break into the cabin. We have a shower, prepare warm
dinner and
I decided to burn
my 3 pairs of socks putting them on the fireplace (smart guy) so I will have to
run the rest of the trip with a pair of semi-destroyed socks.
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| Nor running down Standaslhytta under the moonlight and our torches |
We wake up on the 2nd day already a
bit sore in our legs. Today is going to be a long day: 40-45km to the next
cabin. It is really sunny and warm (it would stay like this for the rest of the
trip). After an easy climb and really fun downhill we reach Sæbo already quite
tired after “only" 15k in our legs. We stop for food and charge the
batteries before we would do the last 30k.
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| TomF and Nor on the fun downgill to Sæbo |
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| Lands up Slogen without the backpack (posing for the pic) |
We start complaining about how tired
we are and check the map to realize that we will have to run about 20k on roads
to reach the next cabin. We are all allergic to running on asphalt, so one of
the trip leaders comes up with the idea of changing the plan a little bit:
having a beer and a siesta here in the sun while waiting for the ferry to bring
us to the other side of the fjord, to Urke. The new plan involves
running/fast-hiking on trails up Slogen with a number of beers in our (previously
light) backpacks for the night in Patchellhytta. It takes 2h30 and 5 Stoltzens
(our particular way of calculating how tough our climbs would be) to get to the
summit of Slogen. We reach the top just 10 minutes before the sunset. The shape
of the north face of this mountain drops vertically almost all the way to
Norangsfjorden, just like the mountains we would draw in our notebooks when we
were kids. The sunset from up here is the most amazing one we can remember. We
are alone up here contemplating in silence how the last sun-rays of the day
paint the whole fjord and some of the steep faces of the Sunnmøre Alps in an
intense red. It is getting quite cold up here and we don’t have many warm
clothes, but we are captured by this magic moment and we don’t start heading
downhill until it starts to get dark. We reach the cabin in the dark again.
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| The mother of the sunsets from top of Slogen |
|
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| Nor and Lands running up Jakta |
Saturday morning we wake up to a
surprise: Emelie Forsberg is here as well! She brought some friends and a
camera crew to have a Salomon shooting by Patchellhytta. Kilian has left
earlier this morning to compete in a VK in the area. We are excited but head
the other way, going back down to Norangsfjorden and up Jakta (1588moh), one of
the nicest mountains in the area. The way up is quite steep and exhausting (not
very runnable) and we decide to hike fast and save some energy for the way
down. The view of the whole fjord and of Slogen from the top is the reward for
our innsats after another 5 Stoltzens. The way down is a lot of fun and we
enjoy ourselves doing some fast downhill running on trails and snow fields.
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| Time for a powernap at the top of Jakta (1588moh) |
The last day we have an alpine start
to run down to the only ferry of the day at 9AM from Leknes to Trandal. I miss
to get off the ferry in Trandal, but the captain is nice enough to drive back
and not let me swim through the fjord. We are lucky enough to hitch-hike a few
kilometers up the gravel road in a pick-up truck. Then we complete the last 35k
of the trip, first through a beautiful mountain landscape and then through some
marshes without trails, which is tiring. We feel our thighs when we run the
last 10k downhill on a gravel road. It starts raining just when we make it to
the ferry to cross the fjord back to our car. We feel really lucky for the nice
weather we’ve had these last 3 days. 100km on trails and more than 7000m of
positive elevation gain are the numbers of our particular version of Hj
ørundfjorden rundt.
Our legs are much better than expected and we spend the 7h-drive back to Bergen
singing, laughing and talking about how nice the whole trip was. It is probably
the ecstasy of having completed this challenge, which makes us not feel too
tired in this moment.
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| Nor running up snowfield (left) and Lands with the fjord in the background (right) somewhere around Trandal |
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