In reply to kheegan:
I guess just to reiterate what others have said, my buddy and I did the North Ridge in perfect conditions on July 18th and the approach + conditions were excellent and I just had a small pack-away grivel walking pole. If interested you can view a short film of the Nordkante showing the conditions, approach and all on the following link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25P5WJVV-MU&feature=plcp
We took the easier descent into Italy and the Gianetti Hut but it still was a bit of a ballache as route finding was not always obvious (look for the big ab rings and disregard the places were there is tat!) + we had only a single rope and some of the abs (into the obvious couloir a 100M or so from the summit and from the iron cross near the end of the descent) required doubles IMHO. Thankfully some kind Swiss folks let us use a couple of their abs! We were very lucky and our mate drove round to Italy and met us at the Gianetti so we did not have to walk over the 2 passes back to the Sasc Fura. Another option is the Swiss walked back down as well and took a taxi (very expensive) back to Bondo. However quite a few parties who had completed the Cassin + Another Day abbed down the North ridge but I reckon it would take a long, long while...