Melen

  • Melen
  • 768 m
  • Primary factor 705 m
  • Location: North 62:56.946, East 007:14.376 (GPS at the summit)
  • Climbed November 6th. 2010.
  • Difficulty: YDS class 2.

Information:

How to get there: Starting from Molde, head north on Hwy. 64, there is a toll tunnel (NOK 20, 2010), continue to the traffic circle and go left on Hwy. 663 to Einesvågen. Go through Einesvågen and locate the fork where Hwy. 664 continues straight while Hwy. 663 makes a sharp right. Measure form here. Continue to follow Hwy. 663. After 15.3 kilometer, turn right onto a dirtroad. This road runs up to a house, then continues left. Find parking somewhere here off the road (do not block it.) If you see local people, it would be polite to ask about parking here. I parked off to the left just below a muddy uphill. Location N62:57.594, E007:11.708, elevation 67 meter.
Route description: Contine just a few meter uphill, then cross the small creek on your left. You will immediately arrive at a trail fork. A big trail continues straight, while a smaller trail goes (uphill) to your right. There is a metal sign pointing this way (uphill) saying that there is 4 km to a place north of the mountain. Take this (smaller uphill) trail. The trail climbs up Rødalsdalen next to the creek, mostly on the left hand side. Approximately at elevation 440 meter, there is a trailfork. One can go north (left) to Sjurvarden (667), or more south (right) to Melen. From here, the trail also follows a rather unusual line of rocks that runs all the way to the summit of Melen. This is clearly man made and must have taken quite some effort to build. However, it is too low to act as a fence, most likely some kind of property boundary, much more elaborate than what one normally finds in Norway.
Follow this trail (or just the line of rocks) to the summit.
Comments: After climbing Skalten, I started out on this climb at 1000. The trail was easy to follow up to about 400 meter, thereafter quite a bit of snow. The route was still pretty obvious and the strange line of rocks could be seen emerging from the snow. About halfway along the broad ridge, I noticed a single footstep going in the opposite direction. I hit the summit at 1135, shortly before black clouds had arrived from the sea blasting me with strong wind and a barrage of hail. I signed the summit register and noted that a woman had been here one hour earlier. Pretty brave, explaining the footsteps, she had done some sort of traverse starting and ending on the opposite side of the mountain.
I left at 1145 and hiked back down in one hour, arriving at my car by 1245. I went back to Einesvågen in order to catch some dinner, then continued my trip to the base of Mekknoken.

Resources: