B and I took a walk today to see whether the ice was holding on Creag an Leth-choin and were rewarded with a very pleasant day climbing North Gully.
The approach was relatively easy as the thaw over the last few days had reduced the soft snow cover on the walk in and the refreeze had firmed up the remaining patches.
We climbed the route via the left hand fork on generally good ice throughout and mostly screw belays. Lots of easy angled ice, but several good steeper steps with plenty of scope for variation. The right fork also looked climbable.
The turf was frozen at crag height and on most of the approach. No visible remaining cornices on this west facing crag. The buttress lines were fairly black with little riming and the nature of a lot of those routes would probably mean there’d currently be a lot of loose blocks. Good weather on the approach, but snowing steadily above 600m (rain below) on a South-Westerly/Westerly wind as we walked out.
