Hiking around the Hjorundfjord

A friend of mine from Germany was visiting Norway to fish here, and I decided to pay him a visit. He was staying in a nice hiking area, and I wanted to do a hike around the Fjord. Sadly, the weather forecast predicted a lot of rain for the hiking days, so I had to prepare for a lot of wet clothes and a wet trail.

Day 1 (21km/13mi, 1890m/6200ft elevation gain)

I started my hike from the small village of Urke directly on the coast of the Hjorundfjord. The first part was through typical norwegian birch forest, but after hiking above the tree line, it was nice to have a view over the valley with the clouds hanging on the mountaintops. From the pass, I could already see the DNT hut in which I planned to stay that night. I arrived there early at 14 o’clock and had a nice break to dry my clothes and warm up again.

There were already 6 other people there who wanted to do a nearby peak and waited until the weather cleared up a little bit. After talking with them, I decided to join them. We started at 16 o’clock and hoped that we would arrive at the top when there were fewer clouds. Here in Norway, there is no need to think about darkness in June/July. 🙂 There is a trail on the first part up to a ridge. From there we had nice views into the nearby valleys, but we could already see that the peak will be covered in clouds. We scrambled the last 200 meters up, but chose to almost go directly down, because it was windy and cold on the top.

Day 2 (28,7km/17,8mi, 1300m/4265ft)

The second day started with rain, and I stayed in the hut until the worst part was over. It was a steep descent from the hut into the Norangsdal, and the rain didn’t make it easier. From here, it was just following the street for 3 hours through a very narrow canyon with walls up to 900m. While climbing out of the canyon, the weather cleared a little and gave me great views back down. On the pass and while descending, I had to avoid some unsafe snowfields, which slowed me down a lot. I was hiking towards a stunning glacier-formed wall when I was descending to Tyssevatnet. The way along the lake was not used a lot, and it was often difficult to find a safe way on the steep and slippery grass. I managed to find a nice camp spot near one of the waterfalls going into the lake.

Day 3 (35,8km/22,2mi, 820m/2690ft)

The day started again with a steep descent down to the fjord. I was hiking from sunny weather up here at the lake into the clouds that were still hanging in the valley. It cleared up a little bit while I was climbing up to the next pass and gave me nice views over the southern tip of the fjord. The trail up was very wet and swampy from the rain in the last few days, and I was very happy that there was a gravel road down on the other side. Following the road, I came to the small village of Sæbo and stayed there for two nights to attempt the two peaks who are towering the valley. In the evening, I took the ferry over to Urke to get my car. So I don’t have to walk along the road to the starting points of the mountains.

Day 4 Skårasalen (7,1km/4,4mi, 1040m/3410ft)

I drove to the starting point for this peak and started the hike in some wet birch forest. That quickly changed into steep rockfields and bigger talus. The normal trail up was still blocked by some snow, so I took a different way that was a bit more straight up but steeper. The last 150m are a very gentle slope up to the peak. From here I got a great views over the entire fjord with all the glacier formed walls and steep cliffs. And I could even see some parts of the Jostedalsbreen, one of the biggest glaciers in Europe, almost 50 km away. After almost an hour on the peak, I went down a slightly different way that wasn’t so steep. When I was back at camp, the weather quickly changed between rain showers and sunshine, so I took a nice rest in the afternoon.

Day 5 Dalegubben (19,5km/12,1mi, 2220m/7280ft)

The next peak started directly at the village, and it was an easy hiking trail almost all the way to the top. Only the last 100m required some light scrambling. From the top, I could see most of the fjord and even the open sea with Ålesund spread around the coastal islands. I didn’t take a long break up there, because there were already some rain showers moving in again. When I was back at the car, I decided that it was still early enough to continue my hike around the fjord. So I started to hike up into the valley next to Dalegubben. The way was again very wet and swampy from all the weather in the last few days. I was very happy that I could stay in the Kolåstindhytta this night. This DNT hut even had water and electricity, which helped to dry my stuff. In the evening, there was some heavy rain coming down, and I didn’t look forward to the trail conditions tomorrow.

Day 6 (29,3km/18,2mi, 1780m/5840ft)

From the hut, I was climbing up to a small basin just under the Kolåstinden glacier. In this time of year, there are a lot of little waterfalls and streams coming down from it. While hiking up to the next pass, clouds were coming in, and I had a lot of trouble finding the already poorly marked trail. On the other side of the pass, the talus and snow fields didn’t help. I followed a small stream down into the valley that was quickly growing into a big river. The next pass I wanted to do today looked a little bit more walkable than the last one. I went up there, but the strong winds made me descend quickly to a nice basin with some lakes. After a small break, I hiked down to the coast, took the bus and ferry to the other side of the fjord. From the ferry terminal, it took me ca. 1 hour up the trail until I found a good camping spot between some lakes.

Day 7 (23,7km/14,7mi, 1560m/5120ft)

I slept not far from a nice peak that I wanted to do, when the weather would allow it. In the morning, the sky looked clear, and I went up there for some beautiful views of the coastline. I also could make most of my planned route for the day. After going down and grabbing my camping stuff, I continued towards the highest pass on my route. (1300m) There were a few, but very clear and turquoise mountain lakes below the pass with large waterfalls between them. The way around them and up to the pass was steep, with some class 2 scrambling required. From up there, I had a nice view back above the lakes and into the next and last valley of the trip. I continued down a steep stony slope to a forest road that would take me to the final ferry terminal. From here, I took the ferry back to my car and drove back to the Kolåstindhytta to stay there for the night.

I was totally fascinated by all the strongly glacier-formed valleys and mountains in this area and I look forward to exploring the area more.

Total Length: 165km/102mi Total elevation gain: 10600m/34800ft