Hiking

High above the wildest of Norway on the Romsdalen Ridge

While all of the Fjord lands of Norway are stunning, the area around Åndalsnes is of special rugged beauty. The walls here rise almost 1500 meters straight from the sea and the Romsdalen ridge cuts through the area. From my experience the hike along it has some of the best views in all of Europe.

Bengt

• 3 min read
High above the wildest of Norway on the Romsdalen Ridge

A fairly long, mildly technical bucket list hike
While planning for our road trip through western Norway this hike had caught my eye and with a small weather window opening up when we were spending time in Åndalsnes I packed light and headed out early.

The ridge stretches from the seaside town of Åndalsnes over seven kilometers to Blånebba peak (1320 meters above sea level) at its very end. Most of the ridge meanders over 1000 meters above sea level. Besides one exposed and scrambly section right by Mjølvafjellet (1216 meters) the hike is not very technical.

There are two options on how to take on this ridge:

  1. Take the cable car up from Adalsnes to 700 meters above sea level and hike all the way to the end and back for about 14km and 1100 meters of elevation. You could also hike up the station adding on the elevation and a few kilometers.
  2. Start by the Venjesdalssetra parking at about 400 meters above sea level, hike up the ridge and then towards the cable car station above Åndalsnes. In this case you need to get dropped off at the parking lot.

While I took option one, the more common one seams to be option two (being shorter and with less elevation). For context the route out and back from the cable car station took me a bit under four hours in total.

From a sporting point of view this hike might be considered challenging due to its length and the technical section in the middle. However I would estimate the quickly changing weather in this area to be the most severe objective danger. If you get surprised by high winds and/or rain up there you might be in trouble.

All alone the ridge, the views into the Åndalsnes fjord and the deep valleys of Trollstigen and Trollvegen are breathtaking and at times unreal. Especially the view towards Trollwall (the highest rock face in Europe with almost 1300 meters and an objective for only those alpinists who are happy to deal with very high risk crumbly rock climbs) are among the best I ever had.

Adventurer: Bengt

PS: Note that the cable car is fairly expensive (even for Norway) at about 45 Euros up and down in the same day.