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Norway's most spectacular road opens for summer

NTB/The Local
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Norway's most spectacular road opens for summer
Although parts of the road remain closed, the scenic overlook is open. Photo: Marianne Løvland / NTB scanpix

As of Friday, parts of the Trollstigen mountain road will open for the summer – see the amazing video of how it got ready.

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It is once again be possible to drive on parts of the Trollstigen (Trolls’ Path), one of Norway’s most spectacular mountain roads. 
 
However, the entire 106-kilometre stretch won’t open just yet. Some curves will remain closed due to avalanche danger, Romsdals Budstikke reported. 
 
But as of Friday at 9am the stretch between Slettvikane and Stigrøra will be open to traffic for the season. That in itself seems remarkable considering how parts of Trollstigen looked less than a month ago: 
 
 
The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens vegvesen - NPRA) said it was uncertain when the entire stretch would open. 
 
“We are still waiting for Bispefonna [a large mountain snow mass]. Either a landslide needs to happen or it needs to stabilize and melt before it is safe to have traffic in the turns,” NPRA spokesman Kaj-André Sæther Døving told Romsdals Budstikke.
 
NPRA advised motorists and tourists to follow traffic announcements before visiting Trollstigen. Although parts are still closed, the Trollstigen Mountain Plateau overlooking the hairpin curves is open. 
 
Norway designated Trollstigen as an official National Tourist Route in 2012. First opened in 1936, the snaking road winds past the Stigfossen Waterfall, around eleven hairpin bends, and offers breathtaking views of the mountainous terrain in Rauma, western Norway.
 
Despite protestations at the time that the project was lunacy, construction started on the road in 1928, twelve years after the Norwegian parliament gave it the green light.
 
The national tourist route runs from Geiranger to Trollstigen, a 106-kilometre stretch that includes a ferry ride across the Norddal Fjord. It is one of the country’s most visited attractions and one of Europe’s most dangerous roads
 

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