Scotland mostly - through nsl4u

While the 6 strong party set off on their 3 'very difficult' Via Ferrata
routes on a 12 hour day, the rest of us ventured onto the big mountain Il
Popera (or is it Hochbrunner Schneid (3061m)??!), to put a notch on our own
belt of experiences!

A great day out heading up and down the same route through an expansive
jumble of scree slopes and towards the top, airy ledges as we made our
ascent up the ridge line...
There is no vf here and the route is really 'the trodden path' which is
evident often, especially lower down, but a tough call climbing up stuff
that is often moving under your feet, as we started to push up into the
corrie proper. The 'tourist map' shows a perpetual snow field up in the
corrie and it is a popular skiing area for those venturing well off-piste.
The weather was changing and towards the top it was not so clear, and cloud
banks were pushing in regularly, making it of course rather colder as well.
As we got towards the head, then it turned to a lot of ledging and following
some not always readily visible cairn markers. One cut we made up, was a
tight scree shute which needed sometimes a scramble up one side with usually
decent holds, or spread legs to grip on the walls with the steep scree ready
to slip at any time. Coming back down this was also a bit of a challenge!

On the top the views were not great unfortunately, but there was a definite
aura of huge height and very steep drop-offs.
It was very cool and windy so we had a very quick snack and got close to
finishing our drinks off, then decided route finding off the lump was also
going to take us a fair effort.
We pretty well re-traced our steps and all remained good to the final amble
off. We were on about the 5 hours Mike had suggested and veered off to Rif
Zsygmondi-Comici Hutte for another bit of final, easier effort across the
high meadow and then coffees/ beers and strudel, etc.
This was a great day and well-achieved by us, the less well experienced
team, in nonetheless challenging circumstances.
The traipse back to Carducci was leisurely and we then got into relax mode,
waiting a bit anxiously on our other team who ran into darkness and
deteriorating conditions on finalising their effort; tea was slightly
delayed but well served by Thomas, Chiara and Domenico as always. Beppe
managed to relax when he knew the rest were home safely and then force
marched over to Z-Comici to do his public presentation on recent experiences
in the Himalaya.

Br, Denis.