Poor weather approaching

I'm at the Guido Lammer shelter right next to the Milchseescharte. Judging by the light, you wouldn't think so, but it's only the middle of the afternoon. Plenty of daylight left, and I have to make a decision. If the weather would really turn bad soon, staying at the shelter is the obvious choice. But there have been clouds high up for most of the day, and so far it stayed dry, so there is no immediate reason not to go on. I have a reservation at the Lodner Hütte. The easiest way to get there is by the hiking trail on the northern slopes of Tschigat - a difficult trail, but still a trail - to the Halsljoch, from where a not quite as difficult trail descends further west, to the hut. I estimate that it would take me less than two hours to get there that way. But I have this strange desire to climb peaks, and so I considered yet another plan: go down to the Milchsee, climb Tschigat from the east and descend the other side. According to my guidebook that would be a UIAA grade II route. Now I just had to hope that it would stay dry - or if it didn't, that the rain wouldn't start too close to the summit, so I could either retreat or only have a short descent left. The guidebook didn't say how long this would take. Well, I don't recall whether I actually made an estimate as to how long, but I clearly remember that it took a lot longer than I had expected. It took me one hour to get from the Milchseescharte to where the scrambling started on the Tschigat east face, and almost two more hours to get over it. But I really enjoyed that scramble, and although I didn't have much of a view from inside the clouds, it stayed dry. 3 August 2012.