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Our 2017 Norway Hike Rankings

We wanted to rank our hikes by scenery, challenge, length duration, elevation gain so others can gain from our experience.

Scenery:

1. Romsdalseggen Ridge -Amazing, beautiful city view of Åndalsnes, & super green rivers!
2. Mount Skala – Nice transition from forest, trees, streams, waterfalls, rocky terrain, and pure mountain bliss.
3. Besseggen Ridge – Awesome progressive climb to the the mountain wall, then you transition to a scramble.
4. Aurlandsdalen Valley (lower route) – Very historical hike where you can see old farms that were renovated back to original state!
5. Middagsfjellet Oyenibba – Weather hindered this hike and it was very foggy, but the locals call this hike amazing.
6. Trolltunga – Early morning conditions hindered this hike as well, but at the end it was amazing. From an overall hike experience perspective, I would rank the others higher.

Difficulty:

1. Mount Skala – extreme punishment on the body!
2. Trolltunga – length of hike made this brutal!
3. Romsdalseggen Ridge – tough climb up the mtn and ridgeline
4. Besseggen Ridge – challenging but not bad
5. Aurlandsdalen Valley (lower route) – relatively mild hike
6. Middagsfjellet Oyenibba

Length of Hike:

1. Trolltunga – 17.29 miles
2. Aurlandsdalen Valley (lower route) – 11.11 miles
3. Mount Skala – 10.89 miles
4. Besseggen Ridge – 9.77 miles
5. Romsdalseggen Ridge – 7.74 miles
6. Middagsfjellet Oyenibba – only completed partial up to 3 miles round trip

Time to complete hike:

1. Mount Skala – 8.5 hours
2. Trolltunga – 9.5 hours – 1.25 hrs waiting for photo = 8.25 hours
3. Romsdalseggen Ridge – 6.25 hours
4. Besseggen Ridge – 5 hours 49 minutes
5. Aurlandsdalen Valley (lower route) – 6 hours
6. Middagsfjellet Oyenibba – 2.75 hours

Elevation Gain:

1. Mount Skala – 6,562 feet
2. Trolltunga – 4,679 feet
3. Besseggen Ridge – 3,905 feet
4. Romsdalseggen Ridge – 3,182 feet
5. Aurlandsdalen Valley (lower route) – 2,967 feet
6. Middagsfjellet Oyenibba – 1,651 feet

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SWE/NOR Romsdalseggen Ridge Hike August 2017 (WD10)

Romsdalseggen Ridge Hike 8/30/17 –

To summarize this hike in a few words: Intense, amazing views, challenging & rewarding.

We parked the car next to the City Civic Center in Andalsnes (free for once!)

We walked approximately 5-7 minutes to the bus stop, which was near the big obelisk looking building. We arrived 30 minutes early.
The bus departs every morning at 9:30am from June 30 until September 30.
Extra departure at 12:00, on Fridays and Saturdays, from July 1st to August 12th.

Here’s a map of the bus station location:

Bus Ticket Information (150NOK per person)
http://visitandalsnes.com/en/bus-to-the-romsdalseggen-hike/

Let’s get to the hike!
The bus drops us off at 62.536390, 7.826350

This hike was far from easy. We started the climb up immediately, just like every Norwegian hike! Due to the lower starting elevation, the trail was muddy as we walked along streams for a solid 30-45 minutes. We shed down a few layers because we heated up instantly. At around 2.5km there was a drastic change in temperature and we put layers back on. Once we reached higher grounds we met up with a mountain wall where started a steep ascent. The climb up this mountain wall was grueling with waist-high steps. We put our hiking poles away since we needed to use both hands to climb the rock. Each step was closer to reaching our goal: the legendary ridge-line views.

Along the climb up to the ridgeline there were three chain assisted points and two very narrow paths along the walk at the top. Once we got past those points it was mostly cruise control where we enjoyed the scenery down in the valley. After the ridgeline hike we started the descent. Once we hit 550 meters we reached Romsdalstrappa, which are stone steps build by Sherpas from Nepal. https://www.fjordnorway.com/top-attractions/romsdalseggen/romsdalstrappa

Once we got our famous selfie, the descent to Andalsnes continued with a very steep and root-filled hike. It’s was a knee burner so we took it slow and watched each step carefully