Descending Gfallwand

Earlier on, I came up along the WNW ridge, on the far left of this photo. That's the normal route. The crux was scrambling over the jagged rocky part on this side of the dark false summit, until the point where the ridge is covered by snow, for at that point the ridge isn't jagged anymore. The scrambling wasn't hard, but there were a few exposed places. Therefore I decided not to go back down the same way, but instead descend the snowy slopes just north of the ridge. Normally in summer, this option wouldn't be as easy, for it would be a scree slope, with rocks just too big to run down safely. But all the snow makes it a lot safer, as long as I don't go too far to the right. The snow is not hard, so even if I were to slip, self arrest would be easy. 16 July 2013.