Svinningen. Time and time again this defiant little lump had spurned our advances. This time it was a last minute decision. The weather. Will it? Won't it? And us. Shall we? Shan't we? With a two person Norwegian high speed lead-out team we left the car in the car park (good place for it) and motored up the wide, forested walk-in path to the base of her steep, rocky buttresses. Before we knew it we had passed the furthest point we reached last time and were now hands and feet scrambling upwards. Where space allowed we stopped and admired the breathtaking views in every direction. Sometimes taking in the view takes suspiciously the same amount of time as it does to catch your breath...
The wind picked up the higher we climbed and in the time-honoured Norwegian style of 'not this false summit, maybe the next one' Svinningen kept herself from us until she was ready. A small emergency shelter just below the summit afforded refuge from the heat stripping wind. We 'insulated-up', drew out our Topptrim cards and scampered up the final few metres to claim our prizes of a hole-punch and a photie. It was really quite cold at the top and my hands went on strike when I tried to sign my name in the book. If anyone reads my entry I'd like it to be known that I'm not in primary school, despite what my handwriting may say about me.
We all stood around admiring the view for as long as our internal thermostats would let us. Svinningen isn't even the biggest lump around here but it's been hard won summit for us for various minor reasons. Soon it was time to head down, a surprisingly less-than-straight-forward operation with plenty of down-climbing. Svinningen proved just as tricky to give the elbow as she did to court and conquer. We took 3 attempts and two and a half hours to get to the top and two and a half hours to get back to the car.
With her safely in the bag it's time to turn our attentions to some other Topptrim summits and then my attention will turn to a backpacking trip in Finland...
