Martin's report:

Sue and I had been persuaded to join others (importantly it was a lovely day and good forecast) on the Tofana di Rozes (VF Giovanni Lipella) route ("possibly a good introduction for those with climbing skills"!). This is the hardest of my suggested routes.

It was airy, sustained (5 hours of constant VF after an hour's 'walk-up'), and a wonderful day out.

Only Chris, John, Rupert and I went the last 20 minutes to the summit (time was getting on) and Sue regrets being left with Alys and Carolyn at the high point of the VF. Great views from the summit.

Then a long shaley descent, much care needed, to a refuge where we gathered together before descending the final 600m back to the car. Chris started to run. So after a really demanding day he made it down in an impressive 22 minutes (I was waiting with a watch). The others soon followed, and we got back to camp to find that Richard had made a fine effort in organising a BBQ for all 21 of us for the princely sum of 4 Euros each.

Whilst the reinforcements from our team set to with lots of ingredients and disposable BBQs, Julia and I went in search of Gail, who had 'a big day' mainly on her own, finishing several miles down the valley. (Latest message from Mary says reports on ‘Gail's big day’ are even reaching her from third parties, so hopefully an appropriate report will be received from Gail in due course.) After rescuing the grateful Gail (this was the only time of the entire week that I was not in the last group to return to camp - no wonder there was no time to buy/write cards or do diary entries) we returned for an excellent nosh. My prediction (following concern about noise on such a big campsite) that the only noise we should worry about would be our own, came true, and a conscious effort to quieten our revelry had to be made after 2200.

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