Vinjerock

Vinjerock is a three-day festival for people who enjoy the outdoors. It is located at the boarder of Jotunheimen National Park at Eidsbugarden. At this height and being up in the mountains mean that one has to prepared for all sorts of weather and especially low temperatures. Another challenge when going to the festival is how to get there. Since I am living at a place with close to no public transportation and it is the same with Eidsbugarden, I was glad to get a ride with my friend, Cecilie, even though it meant an extra day of travelling. The detour ended up being very nice indeed; spending an evening at Cecilie's cabin and seeing new parts of Norway=)

It was beautiful at Cecilie's cabin:)

New roadblock: goats!

Since I got my ticket last minute, I had not have time to figure out who of my friends where going. But I knew there would be plenty of familiar faces, and it did not take long to see one of them. Already when we parked the car someone yelled my name=) And at the festival area it took ages to get to our camp spot because we ran into friends and people I haven't seen for ages every ten meters. It was very nice to see everybody, and the smile I got stayed on my face the whole weekend:) Neither was it difficult to get to know new people: everyone at the festival were smiling, being friendly and nice.

The atmosphere of the festival itself was also cosy. It did not seem people had come to binge drink, but to enjoy themselves. Of course there was drinking, but not too much. I did not see a single episode of arguing or fighting the whole weekend. Sadly this is abnormal for Norwegians after they've had some alcohol.
Most of the food and the beers that were sold at the festival was local and that influenced the atmosphere in a positive way. So did the art that was put up at every toilet too.

There were paintings at every toilet at festival. Made those nasty things a bit nicer:)
"A good conscience is a sign of bad memory"

Apart from the amazing program of artist who were playing, there were also arranged other activities. There was a library, a radio show, knitting courses, a multi-sport competition and guided hikes among other things. We chose to take a trip on our own to Gravafjellet on friday. It was a short, nice hike, but still some snow up in the mountains.

Ready for a hike:)

Do you trust me? jump!

Lunch at the top of Gravafjellet

And then of course a beer=)

A cold hairwash

Luxury 

Who's in?

At one of the pubs in the festival area, very nice indeed:)

Nothing but happy faces and smiles through the whole festival:)

Not bad for an after-party at this place. Too bad it was to freezing to play for long. 

One of the posts in the multi-sport competition 

An other post in the competition

A library, for those who feel for it:)

Locally made beer. Very tasteful!

Lerche singing before the electric equipment started working, impressive!

A big thank you to everyone making the festival so incredibly awesome!=)

Flaggnuten -a hike that challenges both body and mind

Flaggnuten is a viewpoint some 431 meters above sea level. There are two paths to the viewpoint that gives an excellent view of Sunndalsøra: the more humane one that is not very steep, but long and the scary one that is very steep, but fast. I have been to Flaggnuten several times, but all except one time I have taken the long route. The one time I managed to hike the steep route, I took the long one down... So it was about time I managed to take the steep route both up and down, and when my brother wanted to help me I could not say no. On the way up there are three places that are particularly difficult for me since I am scared of heights. At these places one has to use a chain to get up. Once I started to trust the chain the hike to the top was okay, but I started to worry for the hike back long before we reached the top. I really wanted to manage the hike down because it would be a personal victory, and with a lot of help from my brother who got his patience tested, I did it! But I was really scared a couple of times! What a feeling=)

Even though the hike is used as a daily exercise for many I would not recommend anyone taking the hike alone when they do it the first time, unless they are very familiar with airy hikes:) For those who are very fit the hike can be done in 20 minutes. What I especially like about this hike is that one has to use the whole body. The days after the hike my muscles were very sore and my arm and back muscles were aching the most.

We can see Flaggnuten from home

My mother getting past the first chain

Some are more relaxed than others

Sunndalsøra

On the safe side of the rock

Feeling on top of the world!

The long way back down...

Hiking in Sunndal: Stortuva

In Sunndalen you have two opportunities if you want to train: run on flat ground or hiking up one of the mountainsides that are too steep for running. After studying a map, I found a place where I thought it could be possible to go for a run without it being just flat. A 20 minute drive from home the track to Stortuva starts. It's a summit at 1036 meters, and since it starts at nearly sea-level it makes for a good exercise:) It was just to follow the path all the way to the top except from one place: At the first mountain pasture I missed that the path took a right turn, but if you take it slow and take a look around the path should be easy to find:) It took me approximately 1,5 hr to the top and 1 hr to get back down. If you want to make it a hike, it could take a bit longer depending on the pace. 

An old mountain pasture

Ahead: The only part that wasn't possible to run 

The view towards Sunndalen

Enjoying the view towards Nesøya:)

Hiking the triangle in Trollheimen

This hiking trip is one of the most popular ones nearby. Information about the trip can be found here. In spite of the long lasting winter in the mountains my friend Marte and I took the trip early in July. We started at Gjevilvasshytta and were told that up to 60% of the trail were covered in snow towards Trollheimshytta and a bit less on the other stages. We decided to start towards Trollheimshytta, we followed the signs from Gjevilvasshytta and thought we were on the right track. I thought it was a bit funny that we never turned left and after a while we met some people saying we were on the track to Jøldalshytta, not Trollheimshytta. Haha! Lessons learned: do not follow signs, read the map instead. Check if the sign is telling the winter or summer route.

So there was a change of plans, and we spent the first night at Jøldalshytta. What a luxury! It was like being at an all inclusive hotel. After taking a shower and hanging up the clothes in the drying room, we got a three course dinner followed by coffee and cake. It is funny how much better food tastes after a day of hiking=) By 9 pm we were ready to hit the sack! The area around the hut was very nice, but sadly there were too many mozzies around to be outdoors. Even though I was tired when we got close to the hut, the mozzies were so aggressive that I had to find the energy to run the last part.

All routes are marked with red signs. But a map is handy when the signs are covered in snow.

A lot of reindeer between Gjevilvasshytta and Jøldalshytta

Food has never been better:)

A mountain pasture near the hut

Jøldalshytta

Ready for stage number two

On the second stage we took the track across Geithøtta. The more demanding route across Trollhetta had not been taken by anyone else this year due to the amount of snow that still was lying in the mountains. The hiking was fine, but we had to be careful several places where the snow was covering streams. But this was nothing compared to the amount of snow we had to cross the following day. But this snow was thicker and not to many streams to cross, although there was one river that gave us some difficulties. This was the only day I had to wear hiking boots, I am not sure if you have to wear it all if the tracks were free of snow.

Road block. Why do sheep prefer the road and paths?

At the top of Geithøtta=)

Trollheimshytta. The hut you do not see until it's suddenly right in front of you

Ready for the last and final stage:)

The information was correct, plenty of snow!

Where is the snow thick enough for us to cross?

Gjevilvatnet:) almost there!

All in all a beautiful trip that I would recommend to everyone! Ut.no has sat the level of difficulty to demanding. This rating is mostly based on the length of the stages, so do not get scared off it.

Happy and tired back at Gjevilvasshytta=)

Løykja -a short hike and lots of ixodidaes

After a week of no exercise, I wanted to get an easy start. I read about this hike, Løykja, that was fairly short, and decided to do it even though it involved some hills. It's all about getting a view in Sunndalen. The trip was okay, and it gave a nice view of Grøa and the valley for being so short. So far so good. But when I got home I found ixodidaes crawling all over me! They are such nasty creatures, and ruins the joy of being off the main path.(We went through some high grass, so I was not surprised when I got home). It is not just that you can get seriously ill of them; the whole thought of something living on you and sucking your blood to survive is unpleasant, to say the the least!

But I love nature too much to let these small insects scare me away from it. The main thing is to get them off before they find a place to bite. So from now on this is the first thing I do whenever I have been out in the woods. It is ironic that it is not a big animal like a bear or a wolf that everyone is scared of that that injures most people, but a small insect. Yes, many have started to fear the diseases, but still it seems that it is more difficult to acknowledge the danger it represents, than an obvious one(like a bear).

Tanya enjoying the view:)

Pretty happy to be exercising again!

Grøa

Hiking in Sunndal: Vettafjellet

After a late and long lasting winter it was finally possible to start hiking late in June. But not many of the surrounding mountains in Sunndalsøra were free of snow. I got a tip that both Stortuva and Vettafjellet were free of snow, and decided to make my first hiking trip this year to Vettafjellet. It is not a high mountain, the summit is only at 969 meters. The trip is very easy and does not require hiking boots which I only use if it is absolutely necessary. Neither does it take long, and is possible to do as an afternoon trip. It is a nice path almost to the top and then it is just to follow the marks made to show the way. At the time we did the hike, it was still very wet and it was quite slippery. Downhill it was some falls, but since it is never very steep no damage was done. A hike for everyone:)

Service all the way to the top:)

The view down to Øksendalen

Sunndalsøra:) Notice the amount of snow in the mountains!

It is important to write ones name in the book placed in a post box at the top.