SKAGASTØLSRYGGEN

kjk

Last week I finally got the chance to do something I wanted to do for a very long time. Ever since I did Skagastølsryggen quite fast in 2006 I knew that it is possible to do it much, much faster. This winter I decided that it was time to give it a real try – to see how fast I could do it.

Skagastølsryggen is one of the most iconic ridge-traverses in Norway, and one of the most beautiful. It’s the highest ridge in the most alpine area of Norway – finishing on the third highest peak – Store Skagastølstind. The ridge itself is about one kilometre and has some climbing and a lot of scrambling. Never difficult, climbing and down-climbing up to grade 3+, and I know the terrain very well after numerous guided trips on Store Skagastølstind and the traverse. But most of all, Skagastølsryggen is an amazing place to be, and a spectacular place to go for a “run”.

Last time I did the traverse fast i spent 4h34m roundtrip from Turtagrø, now I hoped to do it in sub 3h. I waited for the right conditions – I wanted dry conditions on most of the ridge, but I also wanted snow on the upper part of the decent, that would be faster and save my knees.

So last friday I drove from Åndalsens to Turtagrø only to do the traverse. I brought only a thin windbraker jacket and a lightweight ice-axe in case there was some hard snow or ice I had to cross, some bars and energi-gel. And running shoes.

As I knew, conditions was good on the whole traverse. It was of course very tiering but still enjoyable. I spent 1h10min from Turagrø to Nordre Skagastølstind, 47min from Nordre to Store Skagastølstind and 55min from Store and back to Turtagrø. 2H 53MIN total. A total of 15.5 kilometre and 1750 vertical meters up and down.

When driving home I was happy and tiered after finally done what I’ve been thinking about for 7 years…

Here is a article that Friflyt.no made about it: Friflyt.no

Graph showing altitude and HR

Map

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 20th, 2013 at 10:07 and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

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bjørnar says:

20/07/2013 at 17:15

Cool to see how your heart-rate drops at the more difficult places on the route!

Carl says:

20/07/2013 at 19:31

Kult! Morsomt å lese om rekorder! Har du planer om noen flere rekord forsøk?
Sk.ryggen og dyrhaugsryggen tilbake er gjort ganske raskt før, eller hva med svellnosbreen rundt?

Nils Nielsen says:

21/07/2013 at 07:29

Hei, ingen umiddelbare planer om andre stunt nei

børre says:

22/07/2013 at 12:27

hei nils, gratulerer, utrolig bra rekord, og nesten ikke til å tro. vi dødelige bruker jo 10-12 timer på rundturen… men brukte du 1t53 eller 2t 53…? uansett fantastisk tid. fortsatt god tursommer.