| Frostadtinden from
Storsætra (ski) Frostadtinden |
| Estimated net time | 2½-3 hours |
| Difficulty | No difficulties, but one should stay away from the cornices building up at the north side of the ridge between the main cairn at 801 metres and the summit. |
| Drinking water | Likely to be access to running water from the river towards the end of the forest road (800 metres from trail head). |
| GSM coverage | Coverage throughout the route. |
| Parking | Room for several cars at the parking place at trail head. |
| Start height | 235 metres |
| Vertical metres | 600 metres for the roundtrip |
| Trip distance | 10.0 km |
| GPS-file | X |
| Map |
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| Route photo |
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From Ålesund drive road E39 east towards Åndalsnes. Turn left onto road 661 by Digerneset, towards Vatne and Brattvåg. Continue to the toll booth (NOK 30), and from here another 5.5 km until it is signed "Engsetdal" to your right. Turn right here, and drive 5.5 km until signed for "Storsætra" to your left. Continue up towards Storsætra for 2.6 km and park at the parking place.
Start skiing by following the forest road east/north-east for just over 800 metres until you pass a bridge. Just after this bridge turn left off the forest road and head for the rounded south-west ridge (Småheiane) of Frostadtinden. There are several possible routes up to Frostadtinden, and what route to follow is probably best decided based on where tracks have been broken. If there are no tracks aiming directly for the mentioned ridge is as good as any other route.
Continue upwards until you get to the big cairn at point 801 metres. Make sure you don't go too far to the left (north), onto the cornices. From here continue another 500 metres east to the Frostadtinden summit, staying right (south) of the ridge in order to stay off the cornices. Show some care towards north at the summit because of the cornices.
The descent can be done using the same route as the ascent.
During a visit to our site in Sweden last autumn I met a French consultant, Eric, who turned out to be very into mountaineering activities. We already then agreed that if Eric was ever to visit Sunnmøre we had to try to organise a hike or two. During this week in April Eric was working in Ålesund, so we planned to ski some mountains during the week-end.
We drove to Storsætra straight from work in Ålesund this Friday afternoon, and were all set to start skiing at 16:55. There was still snow down to the parking place so we could ski from the car.
Skiing up-hill was relatively easy but the snow was wet and rotten, so we could foresee that skiing down-hill wouldn't be as nice as it had been when I had been out the last couple of week-ends.
We skied to the big cairn at 801, and then continue across to the summit. For once there were a number of tracks also leading to the summit at 807. At the summit we shared a chocolate that Eric produced from his back-pack and took the compulsory photos, before starting the descent. Because of the rotten snow skiing downhill was slow and in the flatter sections we had to use the poles in order to move forward.
All in all it was relatively hard work, and I made up my mind that this would be my last visit to Frostadtinden this winter. Anyway, we got our dose of exercise, and were happy to dig into some pasta and red wine when we got back to my house.
I went straight to Storsætra after work this Friday and started skiing at 16:45. It was nice and sunny with no wind, and the snow conditions were very good. I skied quite hard and managed to complete the hike in less than 1,5 hours. Again I noticed that there were a number of tracks leading up to Frostadtinden, but none leading to the summit at 807 metres.
The weather was fine this Easter Sunday compared to the previous Easter days (snow-fall every day except Good Friday), so Elisabeth and me decided to ski a mountain. Elisabeth had never been to Frostadtinden, and I had never skied it from Storsætra, so we set out for this "normal" route.
We drove to Engsetdal and up to Storsætra, and were on our way at 11:30. The forest road through the forest had machine-made tracks so skiing was dead easy. Just past the bridge we turned left towards Småheiane. To the foot of Småheiane we had to break our own tracks since the strong wind the previous two days had filled the old tracks with snow, but it was relatively easy going in the gentle slope. When we got up to Småheiane the layer of powder was fairly thin so we only made approximately an inch deep tracks. Skiing was therefore relatively easy all the way, but with enough powder to make the descent enjoyable.
As we got up to the flatter area between 600 and 700 metres another skier caught up with us, so he had the honour of breaking tracks towards the top. Up at the big Frostadtinden cairn, at 801 metres, it was really windy, and Elisabeth decided to not ski any further since she was struggling with blisters on her feet. The guy who had passed us further down had also stopped here, arguing that this was defined as the Frostadtinden summit. I argued that maybe the maps hold the definition of what Frostadtinden summit is, and that is the point 807 metres just under 500 metres further east. Anyway, Mr.801 was too busy scattering his orange peal all over the place to have any plans for proceeding to the summit of Frostadtinden, so I went across there on my own, before coming back to 801 where Elisabeth was waiting.
We then skied down the ascent route, and except for at the very top of the mountain the snow conditions were really fine for telemark skiing. We made it back to the car for 14:00 and then drove back to Brattvåg.