Trollstigen
- 7.9 km
- Length
- 8.1%
- Average
- 643 m
- Elevation gain
- 704 m(GPX)
- Summit
Trollstigen is the climb people drive to Romsdalen to look at, and the one you ride to Romsdalen to take on. The moment comes at the foot of it: you see the whole road snaking up the mountainside, and right at the top you can make out the viewing platform. The first stretch runs straight up the valley, so you are warmed up before the bends begin. From there it is hairpin after hairpin, with Stigfossen beside you all the way up. The gradient stays even almost to the top — no flat bits to recover on, but no ramps that put you out of the saddle either. The last stretch eases off, and the café stands on the plateau.
The road
Trollstigvegen opened in 1936, and each of the eleven hairpins carries the name of the foreman who was responsible for it. Bispesvingen is the lowest. The road is still narrow, and in summer you share it with coaches and motorhomes that need the full width in the bends.
Stigfossen comes down the mountainside right beside the road, and on a couple of the bends the spray reaches the tarmac.
Up on the plateau sit the visitor centre and the viewing platforms from 2012, designed by Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter. Fv63 carries on gently towards the pass, but Trollstigen is the stretch up to here.
The climb
The average tells you more than it usually does, because the gradient is remarkably even from bottom to top. Find a gear you can sit in and stay there. At the bottom the road runs straight up the valley with the waterfall ahead of you, and it is a good way up before the bends start. Then they come thick — and they are the kind we like best: the road flattens a little through each hairpin, so you get a few seconds' rest on the inside before it straightens out as steep as before. The steepest part is about a third of the way up, not at the top, even though the upper bends look worst from below.
When we rode it in August 2021 we had come down it first, so we knew where the spray from the waterfall lay on the tarmac. Up on the plateau is the stop you have been waiting for: from the viewing platform you look straight down onto the bends and the whole of Isterdalen below. Give it time.
Traffic is the real difficulty. In the middle of a summer day you meet the coaches in the bends, and they use the whole road. Start early, or wait for the evening — the light lasts long enough.