Prior to this change, the name was spelled with the digraph "aa", and after this reform, the letter å was used instead (Skjåk).

The official blazon is "Azure, an acanthus quatrefoil argent" (Norwegian: På blå grunn eit sølv firblad).

It is bordered to the north by the municipalities of Fjord, Rauma, and Lesja, in the east and southeast by Lom, in the south by Luster and in the west by Stryn and Stranda.

Bismo is the modern population center and the location of the majority of industry and shopping as well as the municipal administration.

The community is at the meeting point between Gudbrandsdalen and the mountains between the eastern parts of Norway and the west coast.

Skjåk serves as a point of entry to the mountain areas just west; hunting and fishing are also popular tourist activities.

Nestled in a deep valley, the populated regions of Skjåk are rain shadowed and as a result are actually one of the most arid places in Europe with annual precipitation of about 250 millimetres (10 in) per year, but it avoids a steppe climate (Köppen BSk) by being too cold (mean annual temperature of 2.75 °C [36.95 °F]), thus having a low evapotranspiration rate, and having precipitation too spread out (about 55% in summer).

This gives Skjåk a subarctic climate (Köppen Dsc), thanks to low overall precipitation levels in summer.

Agriculture has been enabled by elaborate irrigation systems for hundreds of years, so the area is green and productive rather than desert-like.

For example, in 1197, according to King Sverre's saga, Bishop Nikolaus is reported to have sent a group of baglers from Oppdal over the mountains to Stryn on Nordfjord, via Raudal.