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.

If the transit time is limited (?), what happens if the driver parks at other parking lots - for example at Erjavčeva and pays the parking fee there? Does anyone know?

N3jc - thanks for the recommendation. I really did post a comment under the trips Ruski križ - Križ. If anyone else sees where it's still worth putting such a comment, I'd be grateful. I hope this deters someone not experienced enough from the descent/ascent idea.

Excellent tour, congratulations!

The logbooks really haven't been replaced for a long time!

Vitan, thanks for the congratulations!
The crossing from O to VR was already my fourth, the first time I was discovering the first 2/3 on my own, the second time my colleague and I got stuck another 2x in the continuation but reached VR, the third time I was looking for different variants on my own (of course I had previously searched half the web, here on this portal I got a couple of extremely valuable tips), this time it went quite smoothly.
Of everything, the most important are intuition, which you build over the years, and observing the terrain configuration on site. Of course, not all obviously easy crossings are also those that, looking at the traverse as a whole, get you to VR the easiest or fastest.
In this section there are also quite a few useful cairns, in recent years also quite a few new bolts every 30m (I assume the guides drilled them), which also tell you that you are on the right path. The same bolts are also at the anchors for descents. The cairns are mostly on exposed ridges and are clearly visible, in between there are gullies and ravines over various debris where you have to find your way.

I hope though that someone else thinks that something should be done about Kriška stena. If they already don't want or can't secure the route properly, at least reclassify the route or explicitly write what awaits you there (in both directions).

On Thursday and Friday a day for a nice Martuljski venec above Krnica. Afternoon on route 1 into Dnina, behind me two young men (who the next day dashed into the wall of Rakova špica). In the morning to the end of the scree and for the first time from this side to Oltar - direction logical, of course in the middle an obvious signpost in the form of a hanging rope helps! From Oltar by already known passages to V.Rokav, then controlled descent to Rokavska škrbina (safe by rope, although I know it goes without - but such a long tour has its own rules for me) and further over the overhang to the scree in Kotlu. From here logically to Škrlatičina rama (and this time without summit) down to Zg.Dolek and back up to Rdeča škrbina, then around under D.Gamsovec and Gubni to the start of descent over Križka stena. This last act is personally the hardest for me, perhaps also due to heavy memories. But honestly I don't understand how such a path is categorized as a secured path or how people with less experience can safely descend this path. After all this is the only official descent north between Vrtaško Sleme and Prisojnik. In Krnica just before dark and then by bike to KG.

Martuljek divine, for the soul, the rest according to SLO standards. I'm not sure the rest is easier than the central part of this tour.

Sun beating down like crazy, the only (miniature) remnant of snowfield (from which there would be some water) is currently still in the upper kot of V.Dnina. In Kotlu no more snow anywhere, further to Križ also none, except in one super deep hole right before the intersection for B4 (but cannot descend to the snow without complicated maneuvers).

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?