Taroc - Scaladri (6b+)
Miriam and I had had marked that weekend at the end of February for a while, with the plan to mount the van for the first trip in 2022. Fortunately, the unusually good weather (it has been the driest and mildest winter in Ticino since they keep records!) did not fail us, but temperatures were still modest (0-10 degrees) so that good tour picking/planning was required. As for the choice: Taroc ticks the boxes of southern latitude, and low altitude, but it's west-exposure means that the sun will appear only later during the day (Feb 27th: 11:00am). This required unusual tactics, i.e. sleeping in, relaxed breakfast, strolling in the sun, some warm-up exercises...or to put it differently, killing the time until the sun got into the face. Given that we usually leave rather sooner than later , this approach felt a bit awkward, but it gave us a faint idea what it must be like to wait for a window of good conditions in much harsher alpine environments (think Patagonia). Moreover, ther