janezs73 - Recent messages

I used the nice weather in Lombardy to visit two neighboring peaks, Corna di Caspai and Nasego.

For the first one, I started from the village Lodrino. The trail quickly takes us under the south walls (multitude of pillars in steep grassy/forested slope), where the ferrata starts with crossing a nice slab (C). Follows multitude of slabs (B to C), chimneys (some D), small shelves, ledge (C), gully. Mostly we go left, sometimes up or down, always following nice natural passages (which doesn't mean all are easy). Towards the end a vertical wall follows, where the ferrata shows its more sporty character (D/E). Unlike most Austrian sport ferratas that sometimes rush over slabs without aesthetic feel, this ferrata has "its soul", strongly reminds of famous Dolomite ferratas (in Brenta!).

In the afternoon from the neighboring village Briale I climbed to Nasego via the namesake ferrata. A concreted path leads to the parking (narrow and occasionally steep!). From one of the parkings (packed in summer season) quickly to the ferrata entrance (above scree to the east). The ferrata ascends to the summit in 5 parts (C/D, D, D, D/E and D), with intermediate grassy inserts. The last part is poorly marked, so I missed it on the first attempt. Descent via Nasego hut.

Yesterday I visited [url=www.ferratecasto.com]ferrata park[/url] near the village of Casto north of Brescia. It has 18 ferratas, heights mostly between 40 and 65 m. Since Casto lies low (elev. approx. 350 m), one would expect it not to be freezing cold. But it shows that it's a closed valley, similar to our Baška grapa, where cold air lingers and therefore the temperature is significantly lower than at Lake Garda just 30 km away and not significantly lower-lying.

Due to confusion with ratings, I climbed some ferratas with wrong gear, unnecessarily overloading my arms and in the end only climbed 9 ferratas.

Also the ferrata through Luina gorge is by no means easy (according to them A/B). Since in many passages you hang on your arms, difficulties are definitely B/C, if not C, certainly not A/B.

Otherwise it's quiet there in winter, few visitors, so I had plenty of time for photography.

Ratings of climbed ferratas
(ferrata label : their French rating .. translated to Austrian rating .. my rating):
No.15 : AD .. B/C .. C
No.14 : TD .. C/D .. D
No. 6 : PD .. B .. B/C
No. 5 : TD .. C/D .. D
No. 7 : AD .. B/C .. D, maybe D/E (similar spots in Železna kapla)
No. 8 : TD .. C/D .. D/E, E spot (similar to spot on our right Zelenica)
No. 9 : AD .. B/C .. B/C
No.10 : TD+ .. between C/D and D .. D/E or E
Stretta di Luina: F+ .. A/B .. B/C or C

the hardest, which I didn't climb, are above parking (both overhang nearly 55 m):
Colpo di Strega : ED+ .. E .. my rating E/F
Arcobaleno : ED+ .. E .. E/F, maybe even F (looks harder than C.d.Strega).. but true it has additional pegs next to cable in places, so definitely easier than Arena Variante in Austria

hope these infos will be useful to you.

Perhaps some advice on reading weather forecast models:
I typically look at two high-resolution models (ALADIN and ICON-D2) and the models in which these two are embedded (ECMWF and ICON-EU), and if the location of precipitation in 3h time windows differs by much more than the resolution of these models (cca 2km), then it means the atmosphere is in a very unstable state and even a small shift in mixing of air masses at different heights will affect precipitation, which in weather can also mean over 100km away.
Only when the forecasts of the mentioned two models are similar (not necessarily locally the same), we can read them more "literally".

Currently the state of the atmosphere (in models and in reality) is extremely unstable. Each of us who has been going to the mountains for a long time knows what that means.

I hope it is clear to everyone that the attached orthophoto/satellite image is not an image of the Vršič pass, nor a map of the wider area (bottom right).
None of this is even approximately similar to the real situation (look at the location of parking lots, roads, turns, location of Tičarjev dom, top of the pass, etc.).
Every comment is superfluous.

I was also thinking about this route, Tone, but in the end I wasn't sure if there might be some harder surprise somewhere, so I said, probably the ridge is the easiest (followed the same advice in Slovenske stene and M&M blogs).

n3jc: from your first pic I cropped the upper part of the ridge and marked the detail I'm interested in - I went in direction of left arrow (which was definitely harder than II for me), but I'm wondering if in direction of right arrow it's any easier?
That's the part that follows the narrow tower below the marked step in the ridge (not seen well on the pic).
Although the snow on your pic 3 confuses me a bit, I think it's not the same detail.

One question for the experts:
Two days ago I climbed this ridge from Kukovi prodi to Kukova špica. In the hardest part (my exit from the section marked in the picture, viewed almost from the top of KŠ) I somehow didn't find an easy passage of difficulty II to the right (there was, viewed from below upwards, a broken chimney/indistinct gully that from afar looked harder to me than the slab on the left, where I then reached the marked shoulder, but this was definitely not only II - unfortunately I don't have a picture from below), I'm wondering where I missed the passage?

Congratulations to all - The Rokavs really never disappoint!

Of course LISAC. I see that you completed stage 7 last year (I still have that on my plan for this year), then I still have two ultra tough ones left - 2 and 4. The question is when I'll gather the courage for them.

Just follow the chamois tracks (they went to the scree first slightly up, then slowly slightly down) towards the large screes. There are many possibilities though. One track went down earlier, but because there are jumps in between, I didn't push there.

Yesterday a wonderful day or better morning on stage V of PP.

At 4:30 I was already encountering a fox family, which followed me for almost an hour with obvious enthusiasm for the headlamp beam. The first third of the Rigljice and Rušice ledges was almost a highway track. It looks like about 1000 chamois had recently moved there. Otherwise one could wrongly conclude that (in the style of modern crazy ideas) one of them also had some shovel or even something more motorized. Only at the main system of gullies (where the descent is on scree) do the tracks disappear, but they reassemble above, so I followed them all the way to the scree slopes under Rušica. I am very grateful to them for the last hint, because it revealed the real path to the scree. I finished the first part with a well-deserved breakfast under the heart with a wonderful view of Špik's verticals.

The continuation to the gravel is more or less "each his own", from there the only possible passage upwards. From this side it doesn't look optimistic, but from behind things are logical. Again, the hint in the form of chamois migration tracks in the gully is more than welcome.

Before the three, of course, heavenly views of all the traversed and climbed heights, lunch a little lower at the springs.

A wonderful day!

PS - not even a year old three is already from the inside (albeit to a lesser extent, but still) partially burned - the corner at the junction of the stove and chimney is scorched - it looks like some no longer "know" how to make chimneys, others don't "understand" that you shouldn't load too much into a small stove. And the handle is insanely hard (I could barely open the door)...
The previous bivouac lasted almost a century, this one obviously won't

Razor?

Maybe helpful comment on the difficulty of both Renke vias - last week I accidentally passed by and "looked" at both up close.

The first (older, easier) is equipped in "French" style i.e. with loose cables that have a loose loop at the bottom and which cushion forces in case of fall. This is certainly true for vertical sections, for more horizontal (quite common here) it's physically nonsensical and quite annoying for some. Anyway, despite brackets C/D rating is realistic - still overhanging parts that always lean to one side, so you need strong arms despite brackets.

The second (newer, much harder) has taut cables of course - without it difficulty would exceed all we're used to in this part of Europe (except Arena variant in AT). Take E rating very seriously - I even think the entry move combo is harder. Start is quite overhanging and when bracing feet on rock, legs are so high that force on arms is considerable - like every roof, so arm moves require lots of strength. Move combo here harder than right Zelenica, Gonžarica much easier. Similar hard moves on far left of last segment of newer via in Črna na Koroškem, just longer section there.
Continuation not much easier. Sections D/E, but first issue body always overhangs, second rock slippery (think dust from ground slowly trickles from above with wind or rain, despite secured ground above via).
And this - one of rare vias where resting on lanyard on intermediate pegs not easy due to geometry, if resting on pegs body usually above cable, unsafe and hard to continue. This via is serious sports challenge.

Safe steps to all.

On Saturday it was the day for this beauty on the far west of the Julians. After two years this time alone in this immense wilderness. When climbing the ramp I gladly treated myself to some harder passages, since the summit was not planned - the path itself was the goal.
With the car in Dunja the return was of course obligatory by descent via Amalia and crossing back to Dunja.

Such nice descriptions really tempt up there.. this year for sure again

Yesterday royal loop - from Kot (too early forced by circumstances) to Gube and from there via PP8 to the window and on to Luknja peč, then further (almost) to Temen and to the top of Rjavina. Descent via secured path to Pekel and further to Kot.

Of 4 PP parts (1,3,6 and this 8), this seemed the hardest to me. For proper passage from HeavyBull's last year pic 20 to southern shoulder of Luknja peč yesterday I wasn't ready so I diverted to the ridge, where there was "only" climbing without impossible hanging scree that begs to sweep you away.
Of course descent from Luknja peč wasn't far from that either, but it seemed manageable to me anyway .
Just before Temen in total enthusiasm I followed the beautiful original PP path a bit too long and thus searched for the ascent gully too late, then turned around and up the previous gully (in my opinion like Trobec and company last year, his pic 22) - this wasn't easy either.

On Rjavina well-deserved rest after long hours of searching, which this time unlike previous PP searches led to the end of the stage on first attempt

I fear SVK is not the cause of the problem. It's just a market response that is developing. It can benefit many (if there's infrastructure), but it also misleads (if there isn't). And since this market is developing as it is, but infrastructure isn't (developing), we have a problem. That's the expectation that you can safely do harder tours just by buying gear that should compensate for lack of experience moving in such terrain without serious consequences.

Since I don't believe infrastructure will develop (say, unbroken cables, probably for various reasons), it would be easier to point out that it's not there. That SVK is useless and without knowledge people won't get home safely.

Helmet though is mandatory everywhere here in my opinion, since rocks can fly at you. I sometimes keep it on longer during descents so the sun doesn't bake my head .