15 February...Window Gully, Great End

It was without any great expectations after the warmer temperatures of the past few days that we headed up towards Great End with the intention of climbing Central Gully and doing the Left Branch finish.  As we entered the gully the snow was soft and deep making progress difficult, so we decided to retreat and take a look further round the crag for some ice to play on for the day.

There was plenty of small pitches to climb and as we progressed up, we entered the bottom of Window Gully which looked very climbable and joined Will and Simon who had just started the first pitch.

The ice and neve  improved with height, still thick enough to take a 16mm screw in a lot of places.  The snow and turf was pretty solid and very avoidable when it wasn't.

I'm not sure how long it'll hold on in these temperatures but yesterday was a great day to be in Window Gully.