The Sognefjellet is a mountain pass in central Norway, joining the Sognefjorden in the East with the Ottadalen in the West.
Understand
At 1,434 metres above sea level the Sognefjellet is the highest mountain pass in Northern Europe, and it is only accessible in the summer with a varying opening time.
Prepare
Get in
The road forms part of Norwegian Highway Route 55.
Despite being one of the most remote and rugged roads in Europe, the Sognefjellet is easily accessed by public transport, with two buses daily in the summer leaving Sogndal on the South-West side, and Lom in the North-East side, connecting with buses to Otta (route information on Fjord1 [1]).
Go
By bicycle
British newspaper the Guardian named the Sognefjellet one of the top 10 cycle rides in the world (Guardian (2007) [2]).
By bus
From Sogndal the bus headed out from the town and joins the Lustrafjorden, the very end of the Sognefjorden – the longest in Norway. The road impressively and smoothly traverses its shores to the village of Skjolden where the waters end.
From there the route heads steeply up past gulleys and streams, menacing waterfalls, impassable rapids, into the cloud, and beyond. The glacier and rain-fed rivers get ever wilder, until, dramatically, the road sweeps onto the flat plateaux.
The landscape is bare rock, and even in July ice is all around: floating in opaque blue lakes, in great drifts covering whole mountain-sides, and hanging from peaks higher-still, the great glaciers of the Jotunheimen. Other than a couple of hostels there is little but rock and ice, and our trusty road, the Sognefjellet.
As suddenly the road joined the plateaux it leave it: at Krossbu the road glides into the virgin Bøvre river valley, a narrow scar in the highlands, fringed with dizzying waterfalls, which gradually widens and opens out into the Ottadalen at Lom. From there it connects to buses towards Otta, you can also catch servies from here back East.
See
- The Lustrafjorden arm of the Sognefjorden, the longest fjord in Norway and the second longest fjord in the world.
- Norway's largest glacier, the Jostedalsbreen Glacier.
- Galdhøpiggen, the highest mountain in Norway.
Sleep
There are a couple of hostels up on the plateaux, bustling with skiiers and hikers.DNT [3] and Sognefjellet [4].