And so the scrambling starts...

This is the Dreiländerspitze west ridge. From the Obere Ochsenscharte we went in a generally southern direction, but staying well west of the north ridge of the Dreiländerspitze. The glacier north of the west ridge got steeper higher up, but never serious let alone dangerous: a fall would have been easy to arrest, and even if we somehow failed to do so, there were no rocks below us and we would eventually stop when the glacier would be flatter again. At this point we're at the top of the snow, and from now on we'll scramble up the west ridge. It's no harder than UIAA grade I until shortly before the summit. The ridge turns south at that point, and the climbing grade becomes grade II, and very exposed. But we didn't know all that yet... 22 July 2013.