UKC

My pal and I are looking at going to the Alps for a week this summer, ideally for some long, fairly easy routes (nothing harder than severe, probably, if a long route, though mixed up to Scottish V would be fine) which won't be too busy. Glaciers, good scenery and good food all welcome! I met a chap in Chamonix recently who was recommending the Ortler area in this regard. Any thoughts? We're also very tempted by the less frequented parts around Gran Paradiso.

In reply to Tricadam:

The Ortler area is great! The North face of Ortler itself is one of the best ice routes in the Eastern Alps (even though you may be too late in the season for that), Hintergrat is a great alternative, so would be the Grosse Suldengrat on Koenigsspitze / Gran Zebru (but I have not done that one).

Further south the traverse of the ridge around the Forno valley head gives you something like 15 summits, and continuous climbing above 3000m for 20km.

The Rother selection guide book to the Eastern Alps has quite a few routes for the Ortler and neighbouring areas that may fall in the difficulty range you are looking for, but I don't know whether there is an English version.

CB

In reply to Tricadam:

It makes a pleasant and quiet change form the more popular areas but be aware that a lot of these lower alpine areas have suffered badly from global warming and glaciers receding.
About 3 years ago I did a few routes in the Ortler, Silvretta and Stubai areas and on every route we did we had to do some sort of variation from that described in the guidebook ( this one http://www.isbnsearch.org/isbn/0906371546 ) because retreating glaciers had made the line described unfeasable or too dangerous.

If you have routes in mind I'd try and check out people's trip reports on Summit Post or a similar website beforehaand.