At last we have had a spell of steady cold weather. Some ice has been forming but we have also had a good cover of snow so it's hard work getting to climbs and hard to see where the ice is.
One team turned around from walking (wading) up to Hadrians Wall Direct today. The ice on this climb looks OK and Point Five Gully looks fat. Smiths Route is well enough formed but generally the big ice climbs are not great. Green Gully and Comb Gully, Tower Scoop, The White Line, Waterfall Gully and many other mid grade snow and ice climbs are pretty good to climb but the ice is not always very solid. Ice has been forming on Mega Route X and The Shroud but I think both are still a bit too thin to have a go at.
The great ridges are all very nice although coming down Tower Ridge today was a lot easier than going up it would have been in the deep soft snow.
Steep mixed routes are well rimed up, frozen and snowy. Icy mixed climbs such as Tower Face of the Comb and Stringfellow could be nice but there is a lot of soft snow on them too.
The big gullies have some cornices on them and skiing is possibly the best way to tackle them!
Happy climbing.
Mike Pescod
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