June 16 - Andalsnes to Geiranger

The first item on our morning agenda is to tackle the Trollstigen (Troll’s Ladder). This is an amazing road with 11 switchbacks and a 10% grade (1:12) that traverses a steep mountain side up to 858 m above sea level. The road was completed in 1936 after 8 years of work. To make the road even more interesting, most of it is single-lane, and tour buses and RV’s travel up and down the road. Part way up the road is the 180 m Stigfossen waterfall that comes down from above the roadway, flows under it and continues on downwards … wow! In some locations, the road had a low concrete wall for edging; most places only had large granitic boulders spaced every metre or so. On the other side of these impediments, it was straight down to the switchback below, or further.

We actually cheated and drove up and down Trollstigen the night before to check out the lighting before dinner. About the only time that the entire roadway would be in sunlight would likely be about 0200 in the morning … and we’re not that keen!

Today, there was bright sun and no clouds, initially. We first drove part way along E136 towards Dombas, then retraced our steps and headed up Trollstigen on Hwy 64.

We had lunch just below the summit in bright sunlight overlooking a mountain lake that was still partly frozen, and many snow-capped mountains that rose to 1600 - 1750 m. Behind us, more adventuresome individuals were climbing up the north-facing slopes with skins on their skis, and then skiing down in the spring corn snow. Some people were dressed in shorts.

From the summit of Trollstigen, we headed down the glaciated valley, and soon were back below the tree-line, but this time, there was something different about the farms in the valley bottoms. The main crop was strawberries! There was field after field of strawberry plants in bloom. Norway apparently produces some really wonderfully sweet strawberries due to the longer growing season at the higher elevations and latitude.

We wound our way down the valley to Valldal … at sea level on the shores of Nordalsfjorden. It was obviously a popular tourist spot given the many campsites (parked trailers) and cabins. Nearby was the Tafjorden power project with the spectacular Zakarias dam (96 m), and the Muldalfossen waterfall (200 m).

We crossed Nordalsfjorden from Linge to Eidsdalen, and got right back into heading upwards through hairpin after hairpin. Near the top of the pass on the north side, we saw two workers being supervised by two trolls … so we had to stop and photograph this unusual sight. The workers were in the last stages of repairing the inflow point for a penstock that fed into a tunnel to a power plant located in the mountain 250 m below. No wonder they have trolls supervising such complex work.

The road wound its way along a valley until we reach Ornevegen/Ornevingen at the upper edges of the Geirangerfjorden, 11 hairpins and 620 m below. We could see the town of Geiranger nestled into the head of the fjord at the base of 1500 m snow-capped mountains. And then, down we went … back and forth, back and forth, back and forth … 11 times until we reached the fjord. The Norwegians have no hesitation of building all-season roads wherever they need them … through mountains, up and down the steep sides of or under fjords. Without such roads into places such as Geiranger, the only means of access would be by water.

Once in Geiranger, we settled into a hotel and dinner, both of us feeling a little weary.