The main attraction of our little vacation is the Romsdalseggen hike. The best (and most popular) option is to take a bus from Åndalsnes to Venjesdalen, so you can hike back to Åndalsnes where the trail finishes right next to the parking lot where we left the car. Very practical!
When you hit the trail, you have 50 people around you. But as you get higher, the chain of people starts to stretch out. Some people hurry past you, and some other people you pass yourself. Initially we passed some people but I made a mistake of trying to keep up with Annika, so after a while I found myself being passed by the same people I had passed earlier. It didn’t take long until I took out the camera so I could at least pretend to shoot instead of just desperately trying to catch my breath. 😀
The temperature wasn’t very high (16 degrees when we started), but the air is very humid and there was absolutely no wind to provide any relief. I had sweat running down my face and I was grateful that the sun wasn’t out, even if the sky was a bit dull for pictures. But it’s not because of the pictures that I came here, so I didn’t care. This reminded me a lot of Italy! Except that all the peaks were visible, which was of course a big bonus.
The first part of the hike goes through a forest, until you reach a plateau which rises very gently and gives you a chance to recover some strength to tackle the very steep and rocky ascent of 330m to the ridge. Once we got there, we enjoyed our first coffee break with breathtaking views all around. Really, it’s 360 degrees of magnificent mountains! The most dominating mountain stands at 1852m, we didn’t lose sight of it until the last descent to Åndalsnes. Incidentally, the same mountain (Store Venjetinden) is also visible from the camping and we saw it from our cabin window. Not bad!

Right after reaching the ridge, it goes down a little bit and here it is so steep that they’ve bolted down some chains to help people. Some people chose to do it as they do ladders, i.e. turning around and facing the mountain. I sat on my butt and glided down to get past the highest steps.
The hardest part of the hike is just before you reach the highest peak (Mjølvafjellet at 1216m). I think I owe it to the via ferrata in Italy, but I really didn’t think it was hard at all. I mean sure, I needed to stop and check my options at a few places, but I didn’t hesitate once I committed myself to the task. Hand, grip, foot, step. I was rather pleased with myself when I was standing on top!
There is one more chain assisted place after that, where you need to step on a very narrow ledge. It’s scary if the steep drop is an issue, but very cool if it’s not! Which is pretty much what you can say about this whole experience. Just simply one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. 🙂
The only challenge after that is the long way down to Åndalsnes. It seemed to take forever although we were walking as fast as our tired legs carried us. With no views to be seen, you just stare at your feet constantly, trying to not to trip on the roots in this dense forest. And the sun came out, to make it even hotter, so we were on our last drops of water before we finally reached the car.
After a divinely good shower, we headed back to town to find some dinner. We ended up treating ourselves at the Grand Hotel, it was the best veggie burger I’ve ever had. Genuinely, it would’ve been the best even if I hadn’t just done the awesome Romsdalseggen!
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I was a bit nervous beforehand, because in the description they are very careful to stress out that this is much more strenuous than your average hike, both physically and mentally. But I needn’t have worried, because it looks like I’ve accumulated quite a lot of experience during all my years of hiking:
- At 10.3 km, it’s not the longest I’ve ever done.
- With 925m up and 1255m down, it’s not the biggest ascent or descent.
- At 1216m, it’s not the highest.
- Although rocky, it’s still not the rockiest I’ve ever done.
- It’s not my first via ferrata (and here it was just a chain in the steepest bits for extra support, so not even a via ferrata as such)
- While the ridge was narrow and the fall was long on both sides, there’s no need to feel like doing a balance act
There’s another famous ridge hike in Norway, Besseggen, which seems to be about equally challenging. I think I will have to do that one, as well…











