Hi
Two friends and I are in our late twenties and quite fit. We're intermediate sports climbers and we have some experience in reaching peaks with via ferrata's such as the Alspitze, the Zugspitze, Ilmspitze (difficulty C/D), Ochsendwand, etc... We've also crossed easy glaciers and we have good equipment (rope, axes, crampons, clothing,...). One of us has already done some 4000'ers like Toubkal and has a good technical background. We also have experience in long mountain hikes such as the Tour du Mont Blanc and the GR5. Our goal and desire is to get more into alpinism so we would like to do several peaks in the European Alps in 2013 to have some nice experiences and to boost our knowledge.
Which routes or which peaks would you guys recommend? Absolute height is not the most important thing although 4000'ers would be very cool. We'd also rather do things where we won't be trampled by hordes of people and where we can practise roping up without venturing into killer ice fields or having huge vertical exposure on difficult routes.
Thanks in advance for sharing your experiences and opinions.
Dieter