[sammo]

A few suggestions, all towards the easier end of your grade range, but all really good. In no particular order:

Dolomites

Cassin Route, Cima Piccolissima. Shorter than the Comici, but still great (and sunny too).

Yellow Edge, Cima Piccola. Didn’t get chance to try this, but it looks wonderful.

Brandler-Hasse? Too hard for me, and probably already on your list.

Bregaglia & Val di Mello

Cassin Route, Piz Badile N Face. A “proper” alpine route, but in good conditions there’s little/no snow involved. The N Ridge is a superb warm-up.

Oceano Irrazionale, Val di Mello. Already mentioned.

The Kundalini and Luna Nascente, Val di Mello. The latter has already been mentioned and is fantastic. The former is also great and can be used as an approach to Luna if you’re after a long day out (it finishes not far from the start of Luna).

Ecrins

Rankxerox, Tete d’Aval, Ecrins. An amazing wall, split by a big terrace at half height. The full route is 20-odd pitches and is sustained at 6a/b. A couple of 7a pitches to keep you interested. There are loads of other options on this face too, both harder and easier, bolted and bold.

Desmaison Route, Pic de Bure. Dolomites-esque and a bit “adventurey”. Pitch two is grim first thing in the morning!

Voie de Maitres, Ailefriode, Ecrins. Friendly. Lots of friction climbing plus occasional steep overlaps. A friend blames this route for his toe tendonitis, but it’s still superb. Cut your toenails!

Voie de Savoyards and Visite Obligatoire, Aiguille Dibona. The former is trad-ish (lots of pegs); the latter is basically a sport route (though I’m a wuss and still placed some gear). The Face Sud Classique is perhaps too easy, but it’s a great warm-up and one of the most enjoyable routes I’ve ever done. A stunning peak!

Switzerland

Westgrat, Salbitschijen. Not done this yet. We did the South Ridge (much easier, but still highly recommended) to warm up and then the weather crapped out. The West Ridge is reputedly one of the best and longest rock ridges in Europe: 30-35 pitches, perfect rock, almost all 5c-6a. Some bolts and pegs, but lots of trad too. The descent is easy later in the year (can be done in trainers), but there will be snow earlier on. One of the most inspiring lines I’ve ever seen, and currently right at the top of my rock climbing wish-list. Endless other options around Salbit too - it's a granite paradise.

SW Wall of the Gross Bielenhorn, Furka Pass. The Niederman-Anderuthi route is superb and there are lots of harder options. Short, easy glacier walk to the start early in the season and you can leave your gear at the start and ab back down to it. The glacier can be a bit manky later in the year.

Graue Wand, Furka Pass. Not climbed on this yet, but Eisbrecher is supposed to be great. Cannibal also looks amazing (but it’s much too hard for me).


Cheers.

[duncan]

...

Yellow Edge, Cima Piccola. Didn’t get chance to try this, but it looks wonderful.
...

Westgrat, Salbitschijen. Not done this yet. We did the South Ridge (much easier, but still highly recommended) to warm up and then the weather crapped out. The West Ridge is reputedly one of the best and longest rock ridges in Europe: 30-35 pitches, perfect rock, almost all 5c-6a. Some bolts and pegs, but lots of trad too. The descent is easy later in the year (can be done in trainers), but there will be snow earlier on. One of the most inspiring lines I’ve ever seen, and currently right at the top of my rock climbing wish-list. Endless other options around Salbit too - it's a granite paradise.

Belated thanks for this and for taking the time to put in all the links.  I know nothing about the Ecrins, yet another place to explore.

We did The Yellow Edge after the Comici and was not that excited by it.  Great views perhaps but we were in a cloud most of the time.  The Avon version is much better!

Salbit west ridge has been on the list for a couple of years.  When I started climbing, there was an Edelrid rope advert which looked a lot like this, but I only recently realised where it was.

[Muenchener]

This?

[duncan]

This?

That's impressive.  I might manage the first pitch...

Someone should tell those chaps that Hard, Long and Free is the wrong order.  I like the Wild prefix and it sounds as if it was well-earned.  SWFLMHMF (Somewhat Wild, Fairly Long, Moderately Hard and Mostly Free) trips off the tongue doesn't it?

I know no-one here asks trite questions like "but what has he done on grit" but if they did...

[Muenchener]

"but what has he done on grit" but if they did...

But Johnny did that one-handed, according to an ongoing thread Over There. True? I find it hard to believe, even of Johnny.

[Muenchener]

I might manage the first pitch...

I though that too, until I thought about how much protection somebody who can lead runout 8b is likely to feel he needs on 6a ground, and then remembered how scared I was on the 6a last pitch of La Marche du Temps. (Although the hanging belay on a bolt and a bong had already had its way with my head at that point)

[chillax]

[I like the Wild prefix and it sounds as if it was well-earned.  SWFLMHMF (Somewhat Wild, Fairly Long, Moderately Hard and Mostly Free) trips off the tongue doesn't it?

Thought about the west coast of Ireland at all?

http://wiki.climbing.ie/index.php/Cliffs_Of_Moher 

[SA Chris]

both routes descriptions share a common scary word - Fowler

[slackline]

Flicking through the Sardinia guide in preparation of a trip in a month I've just found the perfect route....

Crag : Parete  del Donneneittu
Route : H.L.F. (Hard Long & Free) *** (29/30 Sept 1999) 7a+, 6c, 6b+, 6b, 7b, 7a, 6c, 6a
Description includes the following "Striking yellow and grey wall"..."demanding though not too long, sustained throughout and psychologically very comitting"

In fact there are tons of options on Sardinia if its not been suggested already.

[Muenchener]

Just found this whilst googling around on my lunchbreak: Gundam e Tatiana , 10 pitch 6c+ sport route in Chiavenna.

Val di Mello style granite slabs but with protection! What could possibly go wrong?

[Paul B]

Without starting a new thread (as I think the people who contributed here are likely to be the best people to answer this question). Does anyone have any suggestions for where to stay in Riglos?

We've stayed at the Refugio but its not possible to cook, and the dinner bed and breakfast option rapidly gets expensive. It'll be fly-drive so taking all the camping gear isn't really an appealling option either.

[slackline]

Sorry clicked wrong button.

[ali k]

There is a very small kitchen downstairs in the refuge. Unless they've changed policy since last year you should be able to cook down there, unless it's been taken over by a large group (it is small). You'll have to take your own stove though. Last time I stayed there in January last year (on a weekend) we were the only ones staying there so had the run of the place and a 6 person en-suite room to ourselves for about 15euros a night. I don't think that'll be the case outside mid winter though.

[Boredboy]

Hey

I think you can use the Refugio facilities to cook, pretty sure they have a space you can store food and use a stove.

It's probably a good option for the few days it takes to do the main routes there. Dossing out is an option too and there's fresh water fountains in the village, but the weather can be pretty bad.

 

[duncan]

Refugio was full of Spanish teens so we stayed here:



A pair of English lads camped in the old olive terraces near the car park; amazingly this seemed to be tolerated.  Everyone else was a day-tripper or had a van. 

[Paul B]

I've found somewhere to stay that looks very nice and works out cheaper than the Refugio, and also has a shared Kitchen, I'll report back if its any good but its likely more suited for us as a pair than a few blokes.

We also found an 8 person gite in the town itself that looks great if you were going as a big group.

We're thinking of doing a few of the less well travelled lines whilst there and the guide (useless as it is) suggests some trad gear, but what trad gear? I've climbed there before and haven't immediately got a clue what would be best to supplement the bolts on some of the more trad style lines. As we're flying budget airlines I don't really want to take a tonne of gear that will ultimately be useless.

[Paul B]

With regards to the accomodation we found, it worked out fine for us but that was due to the fact they got the price wrong (didn't stop them trying to 'correct' it the night before we flew), and it was empty whilst we were there.
If it had been busy the shared facilities would never have been large enough and the added (nearly 50%) cost we didn't pay woudln't have been justified.

I've actually written up a quick where/what/how for the darkside, including a list of routes worth ticking off (no. of draws required, free-grade and typical euro pull on anything grade). Topos can be found relatively easily on camp to camp or google image search for the majority of the routes in Riglos and there has just been another guide released (the topos seemed more accurate than the guide I had), it wasn't yet available for sale while we were there. For regular readers of this thread the routes list may or may not be of interest (I'll link when/if its up). There's certainly far more there worth ticking than you'd think.

Somebody let slip to Nat that he though the routes we did over the holiday were harder than the Brandler-hasse (I couldn't have paid for a more timely comment), I was thinking I might now stand a chance of getting her to the Dolomites. Whislt I understand weather in that area is decidedly fickle, when IS the most reliable time to plan a trip?

[slackline]

Somebody let slip to Nat that he though the routes we did over the holiday were harder than the Brandler-hasse (I couldn't have paid for a more timely comment), I was thinking I might now stand a chance of getting her to the Dolomites. Whislt I understand weather in that area is decidedly fickle, when IS the most reliable time to plan a trip?

Only been the once, but poor weather forecast for the two weeks didn't really hinder climbing almost everyday (although we were on relatively easier routes), when we went in the last two weeks of July last year.

My friend who's been a few times before said that this was unusual for that time of year, with the normal pattern being warm & sunny which led to thunderstorms forming in the afternoons.  We didn't have any thunderstorms which I was quite thankful for actually as I didn't fancy being stuck on rock faces with bits of metal dangling from me whilst lighting went off around.

[John Gillott]

Somebody let slip to Nat that he though the routes we did over the holiday were harder than the Brandler-hasse (I couldn't have paid for a more timely comment), I was thinking I might now stand a chance of getting her to the Dolomites. Whislt I understand weather in that area is decidedly fickle, when IS the most reliable time to plan a trip?

Only been the once, but poor weather forecast for the two weeks didn't really hinder climbing almost everyday (although we were on relatively easier routes), when we went in the last two weeks of July last year.

My friend who's been a few times before said that this was unusual for that time of year, with the normal pattern being warm & sunny which led to thunderstorms forming in the afternoons.  We didn't have any thunderstorms which I was quite thankful for actually as I didn't fancy being stuck on rock faces with bits of metal dangling from me whilst lighting went off around.

According to this:

http://travel-weather.net/italy/cortina-italy-weather.php

August drier than July on average and September drier than August. I think, though you should check with others, that later rather than earlier is better for the BH as there is a high snow patch most years that drains down the top pitches whilst it is melting. These pitches aren't as hard as the lower ones, but they sound hard enough and might be a bit of a nightmare if drenched.

[SA Chris]

Aren't afternoon thunderstorms an issue midsummer too?

[Fultonius]

We're going July 7th to 21st, so I'll let you know how the weather is and, hopefully, how hard the BH is 

Anyone know of any other Fairly Long, Moderately Hard and Mostly Free warm up routes in the area - E2/E3ish and very, very fun?

Also, we're thinking of driving as we have a mix of bikers (road and MTB) and climbers going. I'm guessing it's not too horrendous a slog from Amsterdam?

[Paul B]

The Comici seems like the obvious choice?

[Fultonius]

Ah, yes, forgot the pertinent point - the guy I'm going with has already done the Comici...

[Paul B]

Ah, yes, forgot the pertinent point - the guy I'm going with has already done the Comici...

and his take on the rock quality was? Stu portrays it as a teetering choss pile but other members of the trip suggest it "wasn't that bad"... 

[Johnny Brown]

Sounds like everybody's first impressions of the Dolomites to me.