freeskies - Recent messages

Attaching some pics from Monte Rosa, which my buddy and I "attacked" over the weekend. First day acclimatization with ascent to Piramide Vincent and Balmenhorn, next day Zumsteinspitze and Signalkuppe. Conditions were excellent, weather wonderful.

On Sunday we went along the Ceria Merlone path - wonderful crossing with great views of the High Tauern, Dolomites, our Alps, ibex... But on the top of Špik nad nosom an unpleasant surprise! Right on the top there are 6 huge concrete pipes concreted into the rock, and tools and cement bags are lying around. Obviously the Italians plan to destroy this summit. Does anyone have any info on what they are doing up there?

Urbancek, from the top of Velika Ponca you go around 20 meters towards the second summit, which is a bit lower (say NW direction). At the saddle, the path goes left down for a while on scree. When descending, you see it's quite trodden. After a while, protections start; you also hit one ladder. That part which is really "proper ferrata" is short and actually the lower part of the path.

Not marked but indicated with cairns and quite visible. Cables are new. Regarding difficulty it's subjective. My opinion is it's not harder than Via della Vite or descent from Vevnica to the notch towards Strug. Well protected and a bit more exposed in two places, otherwise relatively short.

Yes, that's a nice tour. At the entrance to Via della Vita, at the start grab the cable and pull yourself up, feet pushing right and left and go on friction. A bit higher you have a ledge on the left to step on. A bit of bouldering.

Yes, at night something rustled and scurried around, but we couldn't figure out what it could be. You've found a nice home.

On Saturday we headed to Kugy's route. The route line was visible from mid-glacier (hanging wires down the wall), but we weren't clear how to reach the start with the 10m terminal sérac?!? Snow on glacier packed and hard - ice axe and crampons more than welcome. So we went to glacier top, climbed straight on then traversed left on exposed ledge. This part unprotected but drilled, so could belay on rope. Ledge then joins original Kugy route. Personally this (unprotected) part seemed quite demanding, harder than e.g. Zeleniške Špice or Široka peč. Rock compact but need to friction climb... When higher in route we heard threatening rumble from wall to our right. Nice feeling it's not happening above you... Since late we watched sunset on Montaž top and headed to Suringer bivouac where we slept. Searched for bivouac in dark, missed it and found it successfully only on way back up. In morning young chamois greeted us in front of bivouac and posed from all angles.

If you want to experience peace, it's worth going in autumn when huts are closed... In summer it's not worth going up into that crowd.

Yesterday I went with three more colleagues to traverse the Zeleniške Spires ridge. Wonderful ridge traverse, pleasant climbing around II grade (if you search, you can find more too) and heavenly ladder, which doesn't quite lead to heaven, but close enough.

I'd chop him so it'd smoke

Yesterday we climbed Via della vita to Vevnica, traversed Ponc ridge and descended via ferrata back to Laghi di Fusine. Via della vita is renovated in some spots, especially under the viewpoint ledge - new cable added next to the old one up to halfway, higher up old cable still OK. Cable added also at two spots on the "plates" under the chimney. Overall protections are solid, but one peg is still loose as I wrote before.
On Ponc ridge there's secured descent from Vevnica to notch towards Strug and descent down slope to Srednja Ponca. These are the only spots on the ridge where protections are needed IMHO. Elsewhere rusted and torn. Of course speaking for those who like to climb and enjoy relatively solitary exposed paths. If fully renovated, it'd probably get mass tourism...

Only memories of the good old days remain

Yes, there at the saddle between Vevnica and V koncu špice it looks apparently passable scree all the way down to Tamaraja. If you look carefully, you see it breaks off at the bottom. Otherwise there would surely be a path and everyone would go down the scree. Well, good that it turned out well for you! That "path" you took to Kotovo sedlo is probably some remnant of the Trent wild hunters' trail who came hunting to Carniola

Now I get where you went, you bypassed Kotovo špica.

CarpeDiem, when did you guys do it? Looks like we took the same route. We then went to Vevnica, return to the bivouac and descent to some abandoned gully (marked), where you climb up the gully and then traverse to Kotovo sedlo. Fun path. Ankle ok already?
PS: entry to Via della Viti (first 3 meters) is in my opinion the hardest part of the ferrata.