[chummer]

Indeed they were but it seemed to stay cold all day, no dripping ice at all. Went up there today with Panton and it was exactly as you describe, fookin great route, I think Si was suprised just how different it was from when he last did it, especially the slab. We did the direct finish too which was well worth doing, I crept into the fun mixed corner on the left to avoid some rotten ice which was a great way to finish, could have been your tracks I followed?

[Johnny Brown]

Good effort guys, I'm jealous, would have happily done it again! Sounds exactly like our tracks - the direct finish had nice ice for the first ten metres, then a bit of a ledge (possible belay), tried to continue direct but soon got a bit spicy - so moved left, into a mixed corner. Ice wasn't rotten, just thin. Hardest pitch of the day?

At the easy ground above I traversed a good ten metres right to a crap belay on an arete, then Ben went up the corner and arete right again - not very logical but he hadn't had much to lead til then!

Encouraging that its still in good nick anyway, will hopefully squeeze another day in before it warms up...

[chummer]

Aye, ice was a little thin and a bit cruddy too higher up. Yep, hardest pitch of the day, a good 55m ish, some great hooks though which were welcomed after the spooky ice, looking like the gullies at least will stay in good nick for a while, just praying for some good hoar for the buttresses now, Flanders looked very good, as did Pyramid Buttress Direct....aghh, so much to do, so little time..
Saw your tracks out right, we did wonder about them!

[Pantontino]

Another fantastic day out with perfect blue sky weather, and luckily the Met Office prediction of a mid day warming proved to be bogus.

The route felt much steadier this time: the moves into the niche on the first pitch were blessed with solid neve placements, plus I got a good hook in before I committed (I probably trust these things far too much, but when there's nothing else they really save the day).

The ice pillar/chimney pitch was also quite different - last time I could barely reach the gear in the roof and the ice was thin and would only accept placements in one narrow seam. This time I had to bow my head down under the roof where there is an in situ peg; the ice was bomber switching immediately to solid neve placements.

And then came the slab pitch - last time we had dropped right down and rocked round onto the base of a bare rock slab, moved across right, then teetered back up left (at one point changing mono points on a rock smear!) to some very thin and marginal placements in the groove. The groove remained tenuous all the way, by which time the gear was well below your feet.

This time I stepped off a high snow ledge onto the ice/snowed up arete with perfect placements, clipped an in situ wire on the right and waltzed up an easy groove with a big smile on my face!

So there you have it: grade VI for an early season ascent, V for late and 4 stars on the Scottish system either way. Another good bit of guidebook research in the bag! 

Here's a pic of Chummer on the direct finish:

http://news.v12outdoor.com/wp-content/uploads/WGDF_600_P2090024.jpg