The Evolution of Romsdal Mountain ACTIVITIES

There is a singular, raw intensity to Romsdal. Driving up the valley from the mountaineering hub of Åndalsnes, the flat valley floor gives way to an overwhelming vertical architecture. To your left rises the sheer, jagged monolith of Romsdalshorn; to your right, the staggering, dark verticality of Trollveggen (The Troll Wall)—Europe’s tallest vertical rock face, plunging 1,200 meters into the valley floor.

For nearly two centuries, this valley in Møre og Romsdal, Norway, has acted as a crucible for human gravity-defiance. What began with legendary, alcohol-fueled wagers in the 19th century evolved into world-class big-wall climbing breakthroughs, and eventually transformed the valley into a global mecca for steep skiing (brattkjøring). The story of Romsdal is a living tapestry of pioneering madness, engineering adaptation, and a relentless desire to push the boundaries of what is possible on rock, ice, and snow.

Long before climbing was formalized as a sport, a deep human urge drove locals and travelers alike to gaze at the jagged ridgelines of Romsdal with a mixture of reverence and ambition.

The Myth and the Horn (1828)

The official chronicle of Romsdal mountaineering begins in the summer of 1828 with an act of pure bravado. During a festive evening at the base of the valley, two local men, Christen Hoel and Hans Bjermeland, engaged in a classic bout of drunken boasting. The subject? The intimidating, seemingly inaccessible anvil peak of Romsdalshorn. The wager was set: they would climb it.

The next morning, the two disappeared into the steep alpine terrain. When days passed without word, the valley folk assumed they had fallen to their deaths. Instead, forty-eight hours later, they walked back into town completely unharmed, claiming they had stood on the summit. Skeptics abounded, and their feat passed into local folklore as a tall tale.

The Golden Age of Exploration (1881–1900)

It took more than fifty years for the truth to come out. By the late 19th century, wealthy European adventurers began arriving in Norway, drawn by the pristine rivers for salmon fishing and the unclimbed summits for alpine sport. Among them was the passionate Danish mountaineer Carl Hall.

Hall made seven unsuccessful attempts on Romsdalshorn before finally conquering it in 1881, accompanied by local guides Mathias Soggemoen and Erik Norahagen. When they finally crawled onto the flat, wind-swept summit plateau, they were stunned to find a massive stone cairn already standing there—the undeniable proof that Hoel and Bjermeland had indeed achieved the impossible in their regular clothes half a century earlier.

Hall fell deeply in love with the area. Alongside local partners, he went on to claim the first ascents of the striking peaks guarding the western flank of Isterdalen; Bispen, Kongen and Dronninga.

Concurrently, the legendary English mountaineer William Cecil Slingsby arrived. Slingsby, often called the father of Norwegian mountaineering, was transfixed by the alpine complexity of the valley. He achieved first ascents of Store Vengetind (the highest peak in the area at 1,852 meters) and Lille Vengetind, and famously dubbed the precarious needle of Kvandalstind “the steepest mountain in Europe.” Slingsby’s seminal book, Norway, the Northern Playground, published in 1904, forever placed Romsdal on the international mountaineering map.

Big WallS

By the turn of the 20th century, the low-hanging fruit—the easiest paths to the summits—had all been picked. A new generation of climbers emerged, no longer content with just reaching the top, but seeking the most challenging, aesthetically direct routes up steep faces.

The 1920s and 30s shattered old limitations. In 1920, the steep North Face of Romsdalshorn and the exposed West Ridge of Kvandalstind were climbed. In 1930, the legendary West Ridge of Store Vengetind was claimed—a route that remains a classic testament to exposure, route-finding, and pure alpine beauty.

The complex vertical architecture of the Vengetindene massif.. Font: djiihaa.com

The Tailor of the Mountains: Arne Randers Heen

While early climbing clubs were dominated by elite doctors, lawyers, and academics traveling up from Oslo, a local tailor from Åndalsnes would soon outshine them all. Arne Randers Heen became a living legend. He treated the Romsdal mountains as his personal playground, pioneering hard winter ascents and mapping massive, multi-kilometer vertical lines. The Romsdalhorn is for ever linked to Arne, called “The King of Romsdalshorn.” Starting in 1928 he climbed the “Horn” a total of 233 times.

In 1958, Heen partnered with a young Ralph Høibakk to climb the 3-kilometer-long Trollryggen route. It was a massive, exhausting undertaking that stood as one of the greatest achievements in Norwegian climbing history. Heen also established iconic big-wall test pieces like the Fivaruta (1931) right next to the main Troll Wall, and the bold east pillars of Semletind and Breitind.

Heen and his wife, Bodil Roland Heen, became the cultural gatekeepers of the valley, accumulating an unparalleled archive of historical gear, letters, and photographs. This collection eventually birthed the Norsk Tindemuseum(Norwegian Mountaineering Museum), which now anchors the town center of Åndalsnes.

The Saga of Trollveggen

For decades, the main shield of the Troll Wall (Trollveggen) was deemed utterly unclimbable—a terrifying, overhanging amphitheater of loose gneiss and unpredictable mountain weather.

In the summer of 1965, the time was ripe. Armed with early technical aid gear imported from the United States, a Norwegian team and a British team arrived simultaneously to siege the wall on two different lines. The Norwegians spent 14 grueling days pioneering the Norwegian Route, topping out just one day ahead of the elite British squad who established the Rimmon Route (popularly called the English Route). The feat made international headlines and cemented Trollveggen as a global arena for hardcore big-wall climbing.

The Free Climbing Revolution

As gear and athletic standards evolved, the focus shifted from slow aid-climbing (using ropes and ladders to pull upward) to pure free climbing (using ropes only for safety, climbing the rock entirely with hands and feet).

The spearhead of this movement was a visionary local teenager named Hans Christian Doseth. In the late 1970s, Doseth blew past the established boundaries of difficulty, breaking the standard “grade 6” barrier and establishing Norway’s first grade 7 routes. In 1979, he and Ragnhild Amundsen achieved the staggering feat of free-climbing the English Route on Trollveggen.

Doseth’s genius was cut short by tragedy. In 1984, after successfully completing the first ascent of the East Face of Great Trango Tower in Pakistan—then considered the highest vertical rock wall in the world—Doseth and his partner Finn Dæhlie tragically perished during the rappel descent.

In the modern era, Trollveggen has entered a melancholic phase. The shifting alpine climate has triggered enormous, cataclysmic rockfalls within the wall, particularly in 1998 and 2003, wiping out classic routes and making the main shield intensely unstable.

However, local virtuosos like Sindre Sæther and his father, Ole Johan Sæther, have kept the flame alive. In a historic multi-year run, they free-climbed the Norwegian Route (2008), the French Route (2009), and finally, the legendary Arch Wall (2010)—a terrifyingly steep route long considered the ultimate test of psychological endurance in the valley.

BASE

In the summer of 1980, Finnish parachutist Jorma Öster made the inaugural jump from the trollwall, closely filmed by Carl Boenish, an American cinematographer widely considered the father of modern BASE jumping. Romsdalen quickly transformed into a global mecca for elite jumpers seeking the ultimate vertical drop. In July 1984, after successfully setting a Guinness World Record for the highest BASE jump alongside his wife, Jean, Carl Boenish tragically lost his life during a subsequent jump from the nearby Stabben pinnacle, ultimately prompting the Norwegian government to officially ban all parachuting in the Trolltindene range on July 25, 1986. BASE jumping continued to develop in other walls and summits in the region,  

STEEP SKIING

While Norway has a long skiing history, steep skiing, came late compared to other alpine epicenters. Litle Vengetind was the first big summit skied in 1987. In 1995, local skier Ola Hovdenak skied for the first time the north ridge of Store Vengetind. In the 2000’s the steep skiing activity started to widely develop.

You can read more stories about mountain history in Romsdal in the Tindebloggen.