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From Flatanger's granite cave, home of the first 9c, to Lofoten's granite and Rjukan's ice, here are Norway's best-known climbing areas, when to go, and the right-to-roam rules climbers need to know.
Norway has some of the most famous rock in Europe, from a granite cave with the world's hardest sport routes to big walls above the fjords and frozen waterfalls in winter. Here are the best-known areas, with the indoor walls nearby for rainy days.
Flatanger, on the coast of Trøndelag about three hours' drive north of Trondheim, is home to Hanshelleren, a vast granite cave whose overhang stays dry in the rain. Its 40 or so routes include Change, the world's first 9b+, and Silence, the 45 m roof that Adam Ondra first climbed on 3 September 2017 and proposed as the first 9c; another 9c, B.I.G., has been added since. Nearby, the Strøm area has about 150 more routes, plus bouldering and trad. Trondheim's walls, including Grip Sluppen, are the place to train for it: see our Trondheim guide.
Most of Lofoten's climbing is on Austvågøy, around the fishing village of Henningsvær, which Visit Lofoten calls a mecca for climbers. The granite is mostly climbed trad, with a few bolted routes, at crags such as Presten, Pianokrakken, Gandalf and Festvåg, and the pinnacle Svolværgeita was first climbed in 1910. The season peaks in June to August, and the crags get very busy in July, when parking along the Henningsvær road is scarce. The guidebooks are Lofoten Climbs and Bouldering in Lofoten.
The granite valley of Setesdal, north of Kristiansand, has more than 650 routes, about 1,700 pitches in all, many of them bolted but with plenty of trad, plus about 150 boulder problems, all covered in Hans Weninger's Setesdal guidebook (2021). Bring two ropes for the descents. Kristiansand's walls are close by: see our Kristiansand guide.
Romsdalen, near Åndalsnes, is where Norwegian climbing history runs deepest. The Trollveggen, about 1,100 m high, is often called the tallest vertical rock face in Europe; it was first climbed in 1965 and first climbed free in 1979, and its north face is known for loose rock and rockfall. The Danish climber Carl Hall made the first official ascent of Romsdalshornet in 1881, only to find a cairn built by two local men around 1828. In Åndalsnes, Norsk Tindesenter has one of Norway's tallest indoor walls, at 21 m.
South of Stavanger, Jøssingfjord in Sokndal has the Profilveggen, a wall of anorthosite and gneiss home to the 8c+ trad route Recovery Drink, about 20 minutes' walk from the road. Gloppedalsura, near Byrkjedal, is one of the largest screes in Scandinavia, a pile of house-sized boulders left by a landslide about 10,000 years ago, and the cliff of Kjerag drops 984 m into Lysefjorden; it was first climbed in 1985, and the road there is closed in winter. See our Stavanger guide for the indoor walls.
Oslo climbers head for Kolsås, at the end of T-bane line 3, where cliffs of rhomb porphyry have been climbed since the early 20th century (Oslo). Bergen Klatreklubb keeps an online guide to dozens of crags around Bergen, from Sandviken in town to the sea cliffs of Sotra, and marks the ones that stay dry in the rain. In Tromsø, the local club climbs on the granite of Kvaløya in summer and heads for the Lyngen Alps, whose highest peak reaches about 1,834 m, in winter, and it publishes free digital guides to both.
Rjukan, in Telemark, is famous for reliable ice, with hundreds of routes and short approaches; guided ice climbing there runs from December to March. In the north, the Lyngen Alps are Tromsø's winter ice area.
Norway's right to roam, allemannsretten, lets you walk in uncultivated land all year, as long as you take care, and camp at least 150 m from houses and cabins; staying more than two nights in one place generally needs the landowner's permission. Bolting is different: the climbing federation says it needs the landowner's agreement, ideally in writing. Respect parking and paths, and take your rubbish home.
For indoor walls everywhere else, see our guide to climbing in Norway.
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