After what appeared to be a fairly devastating 'turbo-thaw' over friday and into saturday we decided to play it safe and headed to Great End on sunday. It didn't disappoint as the hard frost overnight had transformed saturday's slush into bomber neve and turf. There was still a reasonable amount of ice to be had too. We did SE Gully first, which was fairly easy as it was fairly banked out. We soloed down Cust's gully and then up Window Gully, which was also fairly banked out and more like grade II at the moment. The icefall finish was there but thin and drippy so we decided to leave it to fatten up over the week. Instead we soloed up the other grade III finish to Window, which gave good fat ice (although rather drippy!).
There were plenty of teams out enjoying the conditions, which were very good for the time of year! There is still a reasonable amount of snow in the Lakes in the hollows and gullies. With a freezing level of between 600-800m over the next few days, there could be some good ice build up on mid-level routes. So people prepared to search around for some mid-level ice could find some suprising conditions for December! Unfortunately the bottom pitches of Gantry routes at Honister had collapsed.
Cheers Adrian
