This could result in devastating flooding downstream if the river suddenly breaks through the dam created by the rockslide.

[3] Trolltindene and other summits on the western edge are protected as part of Reinheimen National Park.

The road through Romsdalen was historically an important access to the ocean for farmers and miners in the eastern uplands.

[10][11] Norwegian County Road 63 through Trollstigen mountain pass to Valldal was completed in 1936, with connections to the village of Geiranger.

The fictional detective Harry Hole is mentioned as being originally from Åndalsnes in the Romsdalen valley, while the series' writer Jo Nesbø is actually from Molde in the same region.

The Bat, first book in the Harry Hole series, includes a passage of reminiscences, which might be based on the writer's own experiences: "... [Harry Hole] told him about Åndalsnes, a tiny settlement up in Romsdalen Valley, surrounded by high mountains which were so beautiful that his mother had always told him that that was where God had started when He was creating the world, and that He had spent so long on Romsdalen that the rest of the world had to be done post-haste to be finished by Sunday.

And fishing with his father on the fjord early in the morning, in July, and lying on the shore and smelling the sea - while the gulls screamed and the mountains stood like silent, immovable guards around their little kingdom".

After the German invasion of Norway on April 9, 1940, British troops landed at Åndalsnes and Namsos in an attempt to liberate Trondheim through large pincer movement.

[18] On the day of the invasion, German troops immediately took control of Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen and Trondheim, while Åndalsnes and the towns of Møre og Romsdal remained free.

The first British troops travelled from Åndalsnes to Dombås, a key road and railway junction, on April 19.

[19] When the German invasion began the national gold holding was evacuated from Oslo through Romsdalen to Åndalsnes and Molde, and then by ship to Tromsø.