CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Trollstigen climbs a near-vertical wall with the Stigfossen falls spilling across it, and the viewing platform at the top looks straight back down the stack. Link it with the Geiranger ferry and Ørnesvingen and you have the most photographed day of riding in Norway. Book nothing tightly - the ferries set the pace.
A steady rhythm suits this better than bursts. The height arrives whether you hurry or not. The ground tilts up and stays tilted for 17 km. 848 m of it, taken steadily rather than in one wall.
Check the pass is open before you commit to it.
37 km that neither climbs nor drops much. The road settles into the ground rather than fighting it — this is where a day makes up time without anyone trying. Third and fourth, and very little else.
The ride follows Geiranger-Trollstigen Norwegian Scenic Route for 3 km.
Brakes early, eyes far ahead. A descent this long asks more of concentration than of pace. 848 m come off over 17 km at around 5.5%. The road gives back what the climb took, faster than it took it.
Åndalsnes is a small town at the head of the Romsdalsfjord, hemmed in by some of the most vertical mountains in Norway. The Romsdalshorn, a sharp pyramid of rock, rises above the valley to the south, and the Trollveggen, Europe's tallest vertical rock face at around a thousand metres, stands a short way up the valley. The town itself is modest, with a few thousand people, a railway terminus, a harbour and a handful of cafes, and its main business is welcoming people who come for the mountains.
Read the complete Åndalsnes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Åndalsnes is where the day begins. Next is Trollstigen viewpoint, climbing 848 m.
The Trollstigen Plateau is a bare, glacier-scoured saddle at 858 metres, ringed by peaks with names like Bispen, the Bishop, and Kongen, the King, and the viewing platform here, a sculptural structure of steel and concrete that hangs over the drop, is the best place to understand what the road does. Below, the Trollstigen, the Troll's Ladder, zigzags down the side of the valley in eleven hairpins, with the long white thread of the Stigfossen waterfall falling beside it, and beyond lies the broad green Isterdalen and the far peaks of Romsdalen.
Read the complete Trollstigen viewpoint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out at 858 m here. The road climbs 848 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 6 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Valldal, mostly downhill.
Valldal is a small town at the head of the Norddalsfjord, in the green and orderly farmland that lies at the foot of the great Sunnmøre mountains, and it is the first proper settlement you reach after the long descent from the Trollstigen. Valldal is famous in Norway for its strawberries, which ripen in July in the long summer light and are sold in roadside stands, and the local people take a great deal of pride in them.
Read the complete Near Valldal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fill up here — 214 km left and no pump marked after this. You lose 838 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is Geiranger.
The Geirangerfjord is a narrow cut, around fifteen kilometres long, between cliffs that rise over a thousand metres from the water, and it is among the best-known sights in Norway. The village at its head, Geiranger, is tiny, with only a few hundred residents, but in summer, cruise ships anchor in the fjord one after another and the pier fills with people. UNESCO listed the fjord in 2005, along with Naeroyfjord, and a short walk along the shore brings you to the base of the Seven Sisters waterfall, which pours straight into the fjord from a high ledge.
Read the complete Geiranger write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Geiranger, early in the day at 10 m. Next is Ørnesvingen Eagle Road, climbing 610 m.
There is a bend in the road above the Geirangerfjord where the whole country seems to drop away in front of you. Ørnesvingen, the Eagle Bend, is a hairpin on the road from Eidsdal, and the viewpoint at its edge, at about six hundred and twenty metres, looks straight down onto the fjord, a long, narrow slot of green water between cliffs with waterfalls pouring from the rim. Ships look like toys at the village of Geiranger below, and the air smells of cold stone and wet moss.
Read the complete Ørnesvingen Eagle Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ørnesvingen Eagle Road sits at 107 km, about halfway. The road climbs 610 m on the way up to it, steadily. Reckon on about 4 °C colder than the valley, and more in the wind. Next is Grotli, climbing 280 m.
Grotli comes up 134 km in. The road climbs 280 m over at least 35 km before it, steadily. Nothing on this route is higher. Next is back through Ørnesvingen Eagle Road, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ørnesvingen Eagle Road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
161 km in you reach back through Ørnesvingen Eagle Road. You lose 280 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back through Geiranger, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Geiranger write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Geiranger, late in the day at 10 m. You lose 610 m on the way down to it, steadily. Next is back through Valldal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Near Valldal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Valldal sits at 214 km, late in the day. Next is back through Trollstigen viewpoint, climbing 838 m.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Trollstigen viewpoint write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Trollstigen viewpoint comes up 241 km in. The road climbs 838 m on the way up to it, steadily. Next is Åndalsnes, mostly downhill.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Åndalsnes write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Åndalsnes. That is the ride. You lose 848 m on the way down to it, steadily.