Rjukan Day 3: Svingfoss

With the forecast set for 3 degrees and rain we decided that today was going to be a rest day, so that we could make the most of the cold, clear conditions forecast for Wednesday and Thursday. After a lie in we woke up to discover that the air temperature was around zero and the promised rain had not materialised.

Due to our late start we decided to head up the road and climb Svingfoss which is about as roadside as you can get. It is graded WI4, but looked pretty steep from the bottom with two obvious lines, the left hand line followed a leftward trending ramp and the steeper & more obvious right hand line followed a groove all the way to the top. I set off up the route and followed the right hand line as it seemed more natural, it was great to be back on some steeper ice and enjoy the gradual build up of arm pump again.

After this we had planned to go down into the lower gorge and climb Tracy’s Eyes, but unfortunately we remembered that we had to go down to Rjukan to get some cash out so decided to have a chilled out afternoon rather than risk missing the bank’s opening times again.