Super grateful for a beautiful day on the mountain after quite a few years of working towards this!
Started from the church in Cervinia at 8:14am. Reached Lions Col in about 1:49, paused briefly to put on gloves, reached Carrel around 2:10, summit in 3:20. Took a few minutes on the summit, descended the to Lions Col in 54 minutes then survived the rest of the downhill. Returned to the church at 1:28pm.
Fully unsupported effort. I carried 450g of carbs and drank 0.75L of water (yikes). Felt pretty good until bonking on the final descent.
Addressing the current guiding hold on the route, I’d say the rock seems no more unstable than it likely was all summer given the many heat waves. It is understandable that guiding with that plus the recent unpredictable thunderstorms would not be ideal. I certainly wouldn’t want to take a roped client up right now. Less people on the route, however, made competent soloing feel much better than with many parties up there. Tradeoffs. It is depressing watching these beautiful mountains and glaciers suffer.