- Where
- Aurland and Lærdal
Vestland, Norway - Start / end
- Lærdalsøyri to Aurlandsvangen (County Road 5627)
- Length
- 47 km (Statens vegvesen)
48.6 km (Wikipedia, Nynorsk) - Highest point
- 1,308 m (Statens vegvesen)
- Season
- Closed in winter (previous closures 7 Oct–6 Nov); opened 1 June in 2026; Aurland–Stegastein open all year
- Fees
- None listed
- Status
- Open; winter closure due (Statens vegvesen, 13 Oct 2026)
- Advisory
- Norway Level 1
Up from a green fjord village in bend after bend, out above the last trees onto a bare grey plateau with old snow lying in the hollows, little black lakes, and one line of pylons striding away across all of it. At the top it was cold enough for gloves. Down the other side, the valley filled up again with small farms and falling water.
Route facts
- Route
- Lærdalsøyri to Aurlandsvangen
- Length
- 47 km (Nynorsk Wikipedia gives 48.6 km)Checked · Statens vegvesen: Norwegian Scenic Route Aurlandsfjellet
- Season window
- Mountain section closed in winter (previous closures between 7 October and 6 November; previous openings between 7 May and 3 June; opened 1 June 2026); Aurlandsvangen to Stegastein open all yearChecked · Statens vegvesen: Norwegian Scenic Route Aurlandsfjellet
- Closures
- Open as read Open between the Kvammadal and Vardahaug barriers on 13 October 2026, with no closure date set; the winter closure is due.Live alert: Statens vegvesen: mountain-pass status
- Fees
- No toll listedChecked · Statens vegvesen: Norwegian Scenic Route Aurlandsfjellet
- Cost to enter
- Free
- Anchor point
- Stegastein
60.91° N, 7.21° E
The short answer
Aurlandsfjellet is the mountain plateau between Aurland and Lærdal in Vestland county, western Norway, and the name of the Norwegian Scenic Route that crosses it on County Road 5627, called locally Aurlandsvegen or Snøvegen, the Snow Road. Statens vegvesen gives the route as 47 kilometres, from Lærdalsøyri to Aurlandsvangen, rising from sea level to 1,308 metres; Nynorsk Wikipedia gives the road as 48.6 kilometres. The road closes in winter, Statens vegvesen says, but the stretch from Aurlandsvangen to the Stegastein viewpoint is open all year. In 2026 the mountain section opened on 1 June. Statens vegvesen gives its previous closures as between 7 October and 6 November, and on 13 October 2026 its mountain-pass status still showed the road open, with no closure date set. It can be combined with the Lærdal Tunnel, 24.5 kilometres long, which Statens vegvesen calls the world’s longest road tunnel, for a round trip.
Why it's worth knowing
A road through a white country. Statens vegvesen describes the plateau as “noticeably marked by the snow”, with snow on the ground most of the year, and a “desolate and apparently completely untouched landscape” in which the one exception is a power line. At the summit rest area of Flotane, it says, you are in “a new landscape of gentle ridges and wide plains, with peaks and glaciers in the distance”; the rest area there takes all its electricity from solar panels. From Vedahaugane, on the Lærdal side, the view runs to the summits of the Jotunheimen massif.
A mountain road that came late. Nynorsk Wikipedia records that the road was opened as a municipal road between Bjørgo and Erdalen in 1967 and has been a county road since 1987; until 2019 it was numbered County Road 243 in the old county of Sogn og Fjordane. The Lærdal Tunnel runs through the same mountain underneath it, English Wikipedia notes, so the road over the top is the one you choose for the view.
A platform that ends in glass. Stegastein, above Aurland, is one of the architect-designed viewpoints of Norway’s Scenic Routes programme. Statens vegvesen says the platform reaches 30 metres out over the pine trees, 650 metres above the Aurlandsfjord, with a glass front that “gives an illusion of hovering in space”. It was designed by the architects Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen, and stays open all year.
The field notes
47 or 48.6
Statens vegvesen gives the Scenic Route as 47 kilometres, between its two named ends at Lærdalsøyri and Aurlandsvangen; Nynorsk Wikipedia gives County Road 5627 as 48.6 kilometres. We use Statens vegvesen’s figure for the drive.
Not Trollstigen, this year
Trollstigen, the Scenic Route road with eleven hairpin bends in Møre og Romsdal, is in the middle of a three-season programme to secure it against rockfall, NRK reported in March 2025, after a stone came through a car’s passenger window in June 2024 and the road closed for more than a year. Fjord Norway, the region’s tourism company, wrote on 16 September 2026 that the road opened as normal in 2026 and would close on weekdays from 07:00 to 18:00 for up to four weeks from 28 September 2026 for further work. While that programme runs, it is not on this list.
The Aurlandsfjord and the village of Aurlandsvangen far below the Stegastein viewpoint, August 2019.
Photograph: Netha Hussain · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
The timber platform at Stegastein reaching out from the hillside, May 2009.
Photograph: Guttorm Flatabø · Stegastein viewpoint · CC BY 3.0 · cropped
A lake still frozen beside the road in early July, 2022.
Photograph: Davide Mauro · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
The boulder plateau of Aurlandsfjellet with snow patches, July 2022.
Photograph: Davide Mauro · CC BY-SA 4.0 · cropped
- Bring gloves in summer. (This was the last item on the list until I reached the top.)
- Drive over the mountain one way and come back through the long tunnel underneath it.
- At the top, turn the engine off for a minute and listen to how much nothing there is.
- Go out to the platform early or late. The middle of the day belongs to everyone.
- The summer farms on the way up are working farms. Look from the road and keep off the grass.
Stegastein. A viewing platform of steel and laminated pine on County Road 5627 above Aurland, 30 metres long and 4 metres wide, reaching out over the pine trees 650 metres above the Aurlandsfjord, Statens vegvesen and Wikipedia record. Its end is a sheet of glass. It was designed by the architects Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen for Norway’s Scenic Routes programme; Nynorsk Wikipedia dates its opening to 2006. Statens vegvesen says its service building was set slightly over the edge of the cliff, so that visitors have the view and the people inside have privacy, and that the platform stays open all year, though the road beyond it closes for the winter.
Tally, in the marginI walked out along it quite confidently, and only at the glass end noticed I had been leaning slightly backwards the whole way.
Getting there
How to drive it. From Lærdalsøyri, County Road 5627 climbs through the Erdalen valley in a series of sharp bends, past the Sluppen rest area and its waterfall, to the treeline at Vedahaugane and the summit at Flotane, then descends to Stegastein and Aurlandsvangen on the Aurlandsfjord. Statens vegvesen publishes GPS points for both ends and a GPX file, which runs from Aurlandsvangen to Lærdalsøyri. To make a loop, Statens vegvesen suggests returning through the Lærdal Tunnel.
When to go. The mountain section is a summer road: it opened on 1 June in 2026 and closes when winter arrives, on a date Statens vegvesen does not fix in advance; it gives previous closures as between 7 October and 6 November and previous openings as between 7 May and 3 June. After opening, it says, the road may be closed for a time at night and in bad weather. The toilets at Stegastein are open from early May to late October, and the platform itself all year.
What to arrange ahead. Nothing to book, and Statens vegvesen lists no toll. It limits buses on the road to 12.4 metres, and asks that motorhome toilets are not emptied in its rest-area facilities. For cyclists, it warns, the climb is long from either side, and the stretch from Stegastein towards the fjord can be busy in summer.
Safety. The State Department has Norway at Level 1, exercise normal precautions, its lowest level; it warns of landslides and avalanches in Norway’s steep mountains and of petty theft in busy tourist spots (advisory dated 6 July 2026 in its feed, read 13 October 2026). The hazards here are a narrow, winding mountain road, cold and snow at altitude in any month, and the drop from the edge at Stegastein. For the road’s status, Statens vegvesen’s traffic line is +47 815 48 991.
Mark this place
Common questions
How long is the Aurlandsfjellet road?
Statens vegvesen gives the Norwegian Scenic Route Aurlandsfjellet, County Road 5627 between Lærdalsøyri and Aurlandsvangen, as 47 kilometres; Nynorsk Wikipedia gives the road as 48.6 kilometres. It climbs from sea level to 1,308 metres.
Is the Snow Road in Norway open in winter?
No. Statens vegvesen says the Aurlandsfjellet road closes in winter, with previous closures between 7 October and 6 November, but the stretch from Aurlandsvangen up to the Stegastein viewpoint stays open all year. In 2026 the mountain section opened on 1 June.
Why is it called the Snow Road?
Aurlandsfjellet’s road, County Road 5627 in Vestland, Norway, is known as Snøvegen, the Snow Road, and Statens vegvesen calls it “the snow road between the fjords”: it crosses a high plateau where, the agency says, there is snow on the ground most of the year.
What is Stegastein?
Stegastein is a viewing platform on the Aurlandsfjellet road above Aurland, Norway, designed by Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen. Statens vegvesen says it reaches 30 metres out over the pine trees, 650 metres above the Aurlandsfjord, ends in glass, and is open all year.
Can you drive a loop with the Lærdal Tunnel?
Yes. Statens vegvesen suggests driving the Aurlandsfjellet road over the mountain between Lærdalsøyri and Aurlandsvangen and returning through the Lærdal Tunnel, 24.5 kilometres long, which it calls the world’s longest road tunnel.
Is there a toll on the Aurlandsfjellet road?
Statens vegvesen lists no toll for the Norwegian Scenic Route Aurlandsfjellet, County Road 5627 between Lærdal and Aurland, and nothing needs booking. Its rest areas at Stegastein, Flotane, Vedahaugane and Sluppen are free to stop at.
When was the Aurlandsfjellet road built?
The road over Aurlandsfjellet in Norway opened as a municipal road between Bjørgo and Erdalen in 1967 and became a county road in 1987, Nynorsk Wikipedia records. It was County Road 243 until Norway’s counties were reorganised in 2019.
What is there to see on the Aurlandsfjellet road?
Statens vegvesen lists four stops on the Aurlandsfjellet Scenic Route: Sluppen, with a waterfall; Vedahaugane, with a curving walkway, a work of art and a view to the Jotunheimen massif; Flotane, the summit rest area; and the Stegastein platform above the Aurlandsfjord.