Description

A brilliant journey which feels surprisingly wild given your proximity to roads, lifts and all the other paraphernalia ski tourers are trying to get away from! The views on the route are spectacular, with the peaks of the Romsdal and Sunmøre all around you and the Storfjorden far below.

The skiing is pretty good too, with a combination of some open bowls and some fun tree skiing too. Start at the top of the main gondola at the Strandafjellet ski area and skin west, skirting to the south of the ridge that this route follows (more or less) to Kleivdalsfjellet.

Upon reaching the top of the first peak on the ridge, take your skins off and enjoy a nicely steep (35 degrees-ish) run down into a bowl beneath a broad, rocky col.

Put skins on in the bowl and skin back onto the ridge, heading towards Blådalshornet.

(How far down you descend into the bowl will depend on how much you are willing to skin back up, because every metre you ski below the col will have to be regained when you skin back onto the ridge.) Once back on the ridge, stay to the left because a HUGE cornice can form on the northern side of the ridge and there is very steep terrain below it which you do not want to fall down.

Generally there are plenty of rocks sticking out on the ridge so provided you always have a bit of rock to your right, you can be confident that you're not on the cornice itself.

Should the weather close in while you're on the ridge, descend to the south immediately to avoid any chance of accidentally skinning onto (or off) the cornice in bad visibility. Provided you can see where you're going the ascent to Kleivdalsfjellet is easy and incredibly aesthetic so soak it in and enjoy the views.

Once on the summit, strip skins again and prepare for a great descent. Descend south into a fun bowl and drift right as this naturally guides you away from a deep ravine.

Enter the trees and pick as open a line down these as you can find and then drift out left to reach the Strandafjellet cross country track.

Pole along this back to the lift system.