Åndalsnes – Norway’s mountaineering capital

Situated in the heart of the Romsdalsfjord, the small town of Åndalsnes is the mountaineering capital of Norway. Here you’ll find Europe’s tallest rock face, the Trollveggen, along the Romsdal Valley and beautiful panoramas from Nekaskla and Litlefjellet mountains.

It's also the starting point for the hike along Romsdalseggen Ridge, which is popular with tourists. Norway’s highest indoor climbing wall is here as well, along with paddleboard centres on the banks of the Rauma River.

Not much has been written about Åndalsnes’ early days. It later enters the record books when climbers started scaling the region’s many alpine summits. This is a town that began and still continues thanks to its reputation for climbing.

Keeping a drunken bet at a wedding, two locals, Christen Smed and Hans Bjermeland, became the first men to conquer the 1,550-metre-high Romsdalshorn in 1828. No-one believed them until Danish climber Carl Hall finally made it to the top half a century later, in 1881, and found a stone cairn left by the pair.

By the 1940s, all of the Romsdalen mountain tops had been summited and mountaineers moved on to tackling big walls like the sheer and intimidating 1,100-metre-high Trollveggen (Troll Wall). World War II would delay any such attempts for decades.

(Image copyright: Sven-Erik Knoff - Visit Norway)

Åndalsnes’ involvement in the war came in April 1940. The German army had invaded Norway and an Allied British Army expeditionary force was deployed to help the Norwegian Army retake Trondheim in a pincer attack known as the Åndalsnes Landings. The mission was a disaster due to lack of training, weapons, and too few battalions. Of the 1,500 men to take part, 1,190 sadly perished.

When the war ended, climbing slowly resumed. In 1965, Norwegian and British teams raced to scale Trollveggen – Europe’s tallest vertical rock face – with the Norwegians winning (of course).

Later, Åndalsnes port was used to help build offshore oil and gas wells in the North Sea and railway tracks were laid right to the waterfront to ship in steel for their construction.

(Image copyright: Vidar Moløkken - Visit Norway)

Today, the town is still mad for all things mountain. The strenuous 10-hour, 10km Romsdalseggen is one of the world’s most scenic hikes, as named by Lonely Planet.

As you’d expect, there’s a state-of-the art mountaineering centre and museum, and the town also proudly hosts the annual Norsk Fjellfestival (Norwegian Mountain Festival) in summer.

The summer months offer the best weather in Åndalsnes. Snow still scatters the mountaintops in March, but by May temperatures rise above the negative and the sun only sleeps for five hours, leaving long days to explore. By July and August, the short Scandinavian summer has arrived, and temperatures have jumped into the double digits. Rain is a near constant visitor but eases off in April and – surprisingly – is most frequent in August.

By September, the greens have transformed into fiery colours. By November, temperatures have dropped back into the minus, daylight is down to six hours, and snow dusts the mountaintops once more.

“The weather can be unpredictable. It’s always good to come prepared with proper outdoor gear and check local weather forecasts before heading out on hikes or other outdoor activities,” says Hannah.