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Trollstigen

"The Troll Path”

By TheBikepack

July 2^nd, 2019

“The Troll Path”

Every cyclist dream about serpentine roads that take you from the bottom of a green valley to the top of the world! Trollstigen is one of those dreams, the road has it all! Surrounded by high mountains with snowy tops, a waterfall that falls 320m down the side of the mountain and a beautiful green valley embracing the surrounding massif!

With its 11 turns, a average gradient of 9 degrees and 858 hight meters of climbing is quite a challenge but the sore feeling in your legs is quickly forgotten when you turn your head and look. The view you get from the top after your hard work it’s amazing and makes every turn of your pedals easy!

looking up at this road made us jump with excitement

We started our trip up Trollstigen from down in the valley, raising our gaze with big eyes up on the high mountains and following the swiveling road. This was a monumental moment in the way that this had been a dream for the last couple of months, you can google “Trollstigen” all you want (and we did) but standing here looking up at this road made us jump with excitement. We arrived the perfect day - the road was officially closed because of “un-drivable roads” due to snow. But the sign said cars couldn't go up and we were already on our way up the mountain. The sun was standing high, our energy was buzzing and we started the climb smiling bigger than a toothpaste commercial!

The first part of Trollstigen is not that steep, riding the mountain with the faint rawr of the waterfall growing stronger, the mist filling the air and with the view of the breathtaking valley on the other side made us feel like there was no stopping us! I guess this could be called “view doping” if anything, all you wanted to do was ride another meter up Trollstigen to get an even better view of the valley and road under you.

Pacing up the mountain like there was no tomorrow, enjoying the view and slaloming around puddles of snow and we started to more and more really see why Norway should be your next travel destination. Its like all the best landscapes of The Lord of the Rings films put together in one place, amazing! Truly cycling a dream come true and loving it more and more for every height meter we conquered.

Feels like we have used up all of our words for “beautiful view”

Anyway, after another bit of cycling the real mountaineering/climbing began! Then the focus changed unnoticeably from cheering to keeping the pedals going and winning meter after meter. But even in the mits of the uphills suffering a quick glance over the edge when we got to the next turn in the road made us forget all our worries in an instance. Feels like we have used up all of our words for “beautiful view” and we are not even halfways, but i'm sure you get it!

IT WAS AN AMAZING VIEW :)

Finally reaching the waterfall and realising that it not really made much of a scenic stop as the glacier meltwater crushing down the mountainside and the mist coming with it lower the temperature considerably. But trollstigen made sure to keep us warm as the incline didn't make us disappointed.

We started to settle in on the bikes and kept winning meter, concurring turns and dodging snow on our way up. Happy with the long sleeve jerseys that kept us cool in the valley but still gave some heat the closer to the top we got. It was clear why the road was closed as high walls of snow was hanging over the road and big chunks of ice and snow covered parts of the roadway, it would have taken a heavy duty truck and some happy guys with shovels to get to where we were now. Another proof for why riding a bike is so much better than driving a car, haha :).

We got as far as to turn 10 but had to admit that we were defeated when we made the turn and the road disappeared under a 2 meter sheet of snow and ice. We were first seriously considering if we should hike the last part just to get to the top but made the “grown-up” decision to instead turn around and race down the mountain like speed demons leaving the top of the summit for the next time around - because we are definitely coming back! But first we had to take a selfie.. and dang there is that view again! Out of words now but you get it! :D