Trollstigen, the Troll Ladder, is a section of county road 63 in More og Romsdal that climbs out of the Isterdalen valley on eleven hairpin bends at a gradient of about nine per cent, topping out at 858 metres. It was opened by King Haakon VII in 1936 after eight years of construction, much of it by hand, and the Stigfossen waterfall drops 320 metres through the middle of the bends.
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It is one of the two roads people come to this part of Norway to drive, the other being the Atlantic Road an hour north, and the two are opposites: this one is a mountain pass that closes for most of the year, and that one is at sea level and is at its best in the storms that shut this.
One honest note about the photographs. Our set is six frames by four photographers and all six are the road, which is right because the road is the destination. The three here are the hairpins from above, the road with the Stigfossen waterfall, and the road winding through the Romsdalen valley.
What Is Here
THE PASS IS NORMALLY CLOSED FROM AROUND OCTOBER TO LATE MAY, and sometimes into June, with the opening date set each year. That is the first thing to check and the commonest way a trip here is wasted. Clearing it is a substantial annual operation and the date moves with the snow.
The road itself is the attraction: eleven numbered bends, several of them tight enough that a coach needs the full width, a stone bridge over the Stigfossen, and a gradient that works your brakes on the way down more than your engine on the way up.
At the top is the Trollstigen visitor centre and a set of viewing platforms by the architects Reiulf Ramstad, which are among the better pieces of Norwegian landscape architecture: steel and concrete walkways cantilevered out over the drop, with water channelled alongside them. The main platform looks straight down the eleven bends. There is a cafe and a shop.
Below the pass the Isterdalen valley is walled by peaks with names like Bispen, Kongen and Dronningen, the Bishop, the King and the Queen, and the Romsdalen valley beyond Andalsnes holds the Trollveggen, the Troll Wall, which is the tallest vertical rock face in Europe at around 1,100 metres and is a serious BASE jumping and climbing site.
Andalsnes at the foot of the pass has the Romsdalen gondola to Nesaksla, and the Rauma railway from Dombas is among the most scenic lines in Norway.
North of the pass the road continues to the Geiranger ferry and the Ornevegen, the Eagle Road, which is a second set of hairpins down to the Geirangerfjord.
When to Go
Late May or June to September is the whole season, and the opening date is published each year. Check it before booking anything, because the barrier is not negotiable.
July and August are when the road is busiest, with coaches, motorhomes and cyclists, and the hairpins at midday in August are slow going. Early morning is a different road.
June and September are the best weeks. In June the waterfall is at full snowmelt volume, which is when Stigfossen is genuinely loud; in September the traffic has thinned and the valley has colour.
Outside the season the pass is shut and Andalsnes remains accessible and quiet, with the gondola running and the Rauma railway operating. The valley is worth a visit in winter even though the pass is not available.
One point of confusion is worth settling before you look at entry rules, because Norway sits in an unusual position. NORWAY IS NOT IN THE EUROPEAN UNION, and it IS IN THE SCHENGEN AREA. Both halves matter and they work in opposite directions. For borders, Schengen membership is what counts, so the European Entry/Exit System and its biometric registration apply here exactly as they do in Germany or Spain, and an arrival from another Schengen country is an internal movement rather than an entry. For money and goods, EU membership is what counts, so Norway is outside the customs union, keeps its own currency in the KRONE, and has its own and fairly strict duty-free allowances, particularly on alcohol, which are enforced rather than nominal. The practical upshot for a traveller is that the passport queue behaves like the EU and the customs hall does not.
Getting There
By car from Andalsnes is about fifteen minutes to the foot and half an hour to the top. From Alesund it is around two hours including a ferry; from Molde about ninety minutes; from Geiranger about two hours including the Linge ferry. Note that this region's roads involve ferries as a matter of course and they run frequently rather than to a timetable you need to plan around.
By train, the Rauma line from Dombas to Andalsnes connects to the Oslo to Trondheim main line, and the final stretch through the Romsdalen is itself a reason to take it.
By bus, a seasonal service runs over the pass between Andalsnes and Geiranger in summer only.
Norway's driving rules include one limit framed in a way that makes it immediately clear and two that catch visitors by surprise. ON ALCOHOL, the FCDO says that if you are found to have A QUARTER OF ENGLAND'S LEGAL LIMIT of alcohol in your system you may get a fine and possible imprisonment, and that THERE ARE FREQUENT ROADSIDE CHECKS. In practice that is one drink too many, so the working rule is none. ON TYRES, winter tyres with a MINIMUM 3MM TREAD are required if there is snow or ice on the roads, and studded tyres or chains may also be needed. And the two a visitor simply would not know: KEEP YOUR HEADLIGHTS ON, DIPPED, DURING THE DAYTIME ALL YEAR ROUND IN ALL PLACES, and ON ROADS NOT MARKED WITH A PRIORITY SIGN, THE YELLOW DIAMOND, YOU MUST GIVE WAY TO TRAFFIC COMING FROM THE RIGHT. That second one is the genuine hazard, because a car emerging from a side road on your right has priority and will take it. Driving offences carry on-the-spot fines of up to 10,000 Norwegian krone.
Is Trollstigen Safe for Women?
Trollstigen is safe from crime and its risks are the road and the mountain. One sentence in Norway's advisory changes the planning for a large part of the country. NEARLY HALF OF NORWAY IS IN THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, INCLUDING SOME VERY REMOTE AREAS OF LAND AND SEA, and in those areas EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE AND SEARCH AND RESCUE ARE LIMITED. That is not a warning about danger so much as a statement about response time, and the honest consequence is that self-sufficiency does the work an ambulance does elsewhere: tell someone your route and your expected return, carry more warmth than the forecast justifies, carry a way to signal that does not depend on mobile coverage, and treat a plan that works only if nothing goes wrong as no plan at all.
The gradient and the width are the real hazards and they bite on the way down. Nine per cent for eleven bends means continuous braking, and brake fade on a descent is the characteristic failure here: use a low gear and let the engine hold the car rather than riding the brakes. The bends are tight enough that meeting a coach means one of you reverses, and the uphill vehicle has priority. Caravans over a certain length are prohibited.
The second is rockfall, and it is why the road sometimes closes in season. This is an active mountain face, the authorities monitor it, and closures happen at short notice after heavy rain or in spring. A closure is not advisory.
On the platforms, the walkways are engineered, railed and safe, and the ground off them is wet rock above a long drop. Stay on the structures, which is what they are for.
Norway's advisory describes the conditions a packing list has to answer, and it is worth quoting rather than paraphrasing. THE WEATHER CAN CHANGE QUICKLY, PRODUCING ARCTIC CONDITIONS EVEN IN SUMMER ON EXPOSED MOUNTAIN TOPS. THE WINTER IS LONG AND CAN LAST WELL INTO APRIL. TEMPERATURES CAN DROP TO MINUS 25C AND BELOW. THERE IS ALSO A HIGH WIND CHILL FACTOR, PARTICULARLY IN UNSHELTERED AREAS AND MOUNTAIN RANGES. Three things follow from that and they are not the same thing as owning a warm coat. A long winter means the shoulder seasons are winter, so an April trip is a winter trip. Wind chill rather than air temperature is what you dress against, which makes a windproof outer layer worth more than a thicker insulating one. And conditions changing quickly on a mountain in summer means carrying the layer you do not currently need, which is the entire argument for base layers that pack to nothing and do not hold damp.
Two Norwegian rules exist that a visitor is likely to break by accident and neither is about driving. POLICE ENFORCE BANS ON CAMPFIRES IN MANY HIKING AREAS DURING THE SUMMER MONTHS, which sits oddly beside Norway's famous right to roam: you may legally camp in a great deal of open country and still not be allowed to light anything. And DRONES require registration as an operator in Norway or an EU or EFTA country plus LIABILITY INSURANCE, with no-fly zones in force, so a drone packed for the fjords is a licensing question before it is a photography one.
The Trollstigen Packing List
A short drive with a long stop at 858 metres, spray off a 320 metre waterfall, and weather that is not the valley's.
Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron, and a long sleeve merino wool base layer for women answers the specific gap this road creates: you leave Andalsnes at sea level in fifteen degrees and stand on an exposed platform at 858 metres in wind and waterfall spray half an hour later. Norway's own advisory warns of ARCTIC CONDITIONS EVEN IN SUMMER on exposed ground with a HIGH WIND CHILL FACTOR, and the Trollstigen platform is exactly that. Wool keeps insulating when damp, which with Stigfossen blowing across you is the condition.
Over it, a Marmot PreCip Eco rain jacket with a hood, and a Columbia Fast Trek fleece beneath it. The shell is for wind and spray rather than rain, and the platforms have no shelter.
Merrell Moab 3 waterproof hiking boots with Darn Tough merino socks. The walkways are wet steel and concrete, the laybys are gravel, and if you walk any of the paths around the top the ground is wet rock and heather. Smooth soles on wet steel above a drop is the avoidable mistake.
Sunglasses, because snow lies beside the road well into the season and the glare on a bright day at that altitude is severe.
Not linked and worth packing: a NECK GAITER and TREKKING POLES, where the only entries in our range have a contested product identity; a hat and gloves in any month, since the top is cold in July; a thermos; and a full tank, because the pass has no fuel and the ferries on this route take cards but the small places do not always.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Essential Resources for Women at Trollstigen
Emergency numbers: Norway uses three direct numbers and the distinction matters more here than elsewhere, because 112 IS THE POLICE NUMBER rather than a general router: 112 for police, 113 FOR AN AMBULANCE and 110 for the fire service. For a medical emergency, 113 is the faster call. All three work from any phone including a locked mobile and operators speak English. For a non-urgent medical problem, 116117 reaches the out-of-hours doctor service. And the one specific to this country: in the mountains and at sea, remember that the FCDO states EMERGENCY MEDICAL ASSISTANCE AND SEARCH AND RESCUE ARE LIMITED across the half of Norway inside the Arctic Circle, so the call connects quickly and the help may still be a long way off.
THE PASS IS NORMALLY CLOSED FROM AROUND OCTOBER TO LATE MAY AND SOMETIMES INTO JUNE, with the opening date set each year: check it before booking. The gradient is about nine per cent over eleven hairpins, so use a low gear on the descent rather than riding the brakes, and note that the UPHILL VEHICLE HAS PRIORITY on the tight bends and long caravans are prohibited. The road also closes at short notice for ROCKFALL after heavy rain and in spring, and a closure is not advisory. On the viewing platforms, stay on the structures: the ground off them is wet rock above a long drop.
US State Department travel advisory: the Norway advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/norway, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Main hospital: there is nothing at the pass. The nearest hospital is in Molde, about ninety minutes, with Alesund around two hours and the regional referral centre in Trondheim. Andalsnes at the foot has a health centre. Mobile signal on the pass is patchy. Norway is in the EEA rather than the EU, and that distinction does not cost you anything here: a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident, which in Norway means paying the same patient contribution a Norwegian pays rather than nothing. Travel insurance sits on top of it, and in Norway it should specifically cover SEARCH AND RESCUE AND AIR AMBULANCE, because the terrain rather than the medicine is what makes a Norwegian incident expensive. A pharmacy is an APOTEK, they handle minor problems without an appointment, and the larger towns have one open late. TAP WATER IS AMONG THE BEST IN THE WORLD and buying bottled water here is purely a waste of money. There are no required vaccinations and no endemic tropical disease. TICKS occur along the southern coast and in the south east, carrying Lyme and, in a narrow coastal band, tick-borne encephalitis, which is a reason to check after walking in long grass. The real medical risk in Norway is environmental rather than infectious: cold, wet and exposure, which is what the clothing on this page is for.
Official health authority: Helsenorge, the Norwegian public health service portal. covers the More og Romsdal hospital network
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Oslo.
Official tourism authority: Visit Norway, the official travel guide. publishes the Trollstigen opening date and road status each season
Takeaways
Check the opening date before you book. The pass is shut from roughly October to late May and the date moves with the snow each year.
Come in June for the waterfall or September for the quiet. Snowmelt makes Stigfossen loud; autumn empties the bends.
Use a low gear going down. Nine per cent over eleven hairpins means brake fade, which is the characteristic failure here.
Pair it with the Atlantic Road. They share one heading in our Alesund guide and they are seasonal in opposite directions, so between them they cover the year.
Solo women safety assessment: Trollstigen is safe from crime, as Norway broadly is with one of the lowest violent crime rates in the world, and everything that can go wrong here is the road or the mountain. The FCDO's Norway page carries almost no crime content beyond petty theft around Oslo's airport and stations; what it does warn about is environmental, naming ARCTIC CONDITIONS EVEN IN SUMMER on exposed ground, a HIGH WIND CHILL FACTOR in unsheltered areas, and LIMITED EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE AND SEARCH AND RESCUE across the half of the country inside the Arctic Circle, which is about response time rather than danger. THE GRADIENT IS THE FIRST HAZARD AND IT BITES ON THE DESCENT: about nine per cent over eleven hairpins means continuous braking, and brake fade going down is the characteristic failure, so use a low gear and let the engine hold the car. The bends are tight enough that meeting a coach means someone reverses, THE UPHILL VEHICLE HAS PRIORITY, and long caravans are prohibited. THE SECOND IS ROCKFALL: this is an active face, it is monitored, and the road closes at short notice after heavy rain and in spring, which is not advisory. On the viewing platforms the walkways are engineered and railed and entirely safe; the ground off them is wet rock above a long drop, which is what the structures exist to keep you off. Driving in Norway otherwise: the alcohol limit is effectively zero at A QUARTER OF ENGLAND'S with frequent roadside checks, headlights stay on dipped all year, and on roads without a yellow diamond you GIVE WAY TO TRAFFIC FROM THE RIGHT. Signal on the pass is patchy and there is no fuel.
Reading On
Trollstigen and the coast road north of it are a pair. The Atlantic Road packing list covers the eight bridges across open ocean an hour north, which is at its most dramatic in the storm season when this pass is shut, so between them they cover the year. The Aurland packing list covers the fjord village further south. The Alesund packing list covers the art nouveau town on the coast, which is the usual base for driving this pass. For the country as a whole the Norway travel guide for women and the Norway packing list carry the driving rules, the ferries and the practical material in full. For why wool is the layer when you cross from a warm valley to a windy platform in half an hour, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
