Skjorta

  • Skjorta
  • 1712 m
  • Primary factor 619 m
  • Eresfjord, Norway
  • Location: North 62.65824, East 008.22086 (GPS on the summit)
  • Difficulty: YDS class 2
  • Climbed May 22. 2020

Information:

How to get there:
Locate the small village of Eresfjord on the Hwy. connecting Åndalsnes with Sunndalsøra. Skjorta is the dominating peak directly west of Eresfjord. Leave the main Hwy. here and get onto the main local road. Slightly more than 800 meter south of the exit from the main Hwy., turn left onto a smaller road that runs east, climbing into Kanndalen valley. Drive this road until it is blocked by snow and find parking that does not block essential activities. The road continues as a toll road from location N62.67953, E008.15987, elevation about 275 meter. We parked off the road just before the toll section since one could ski on the road from this point.
Route description:
Continue up the road all the way to the first summer farms, named Storstølen on the map. Descend to the river here, there is a permanent bridge at location N62.68356, E008.20471, elevation about 450 meter. From here, the route climbs south or slightly west of south in order to gain the main north to north-west ridge of Skjorta in an area where the terrain is not very steep. As soon as the ridge has been gained, the route of ascent now follows this ridge or terrain slightly on the west side of the crest, that is on the right hand side while ascending. The terrain gets somewhat steeper when ascending the last 100 vertical meter before the summit. There is a large cairn on the top, visible from the village below. Thus, the highest point is slightly further on the pretty flat summit plateau. In winter, there are dangerous cornices facing north and east, stay away from this area.
Comments:
I did this trip with my friend Eric. We drove from our base in Sunndalen and were ready to ski up the farm road at 0900. The ascent is significant and we felt yesterdays ascent of Dronningkrona. The wind increased as we got higher and the gusts turned strong enough to make sharp (180 degree) turns while ascending a bit uncomfortable. Thus, we left our skis about 100 (vertical) meter below the summit and walked up on foot. This final slope also had many rocks making skiing less enjoyable in any case. I reached the summit somewhat ahead of Eric, it was, however, quite good to sit next to the big cairn providing shelter for the wind. We both carefully explored the summit plateau, quite a bit higher than the cairn, possibly just a very thick layer of snow. We started back down at 1415. The snow was wet and less than perfect for skiing, making many successive turns took more effort than we could mobilize, briefs stops after 5-6 turns were needed. The slope, more west than our line of ascent is quite big and has a good angle. We were back at the car around 1600.

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