Great End

Monday myself and Martin set off from Tarleton at 5:30am with high hopes after the weekend's local snowfall. We actually found theres significantly less snow and the further north you get, for example Lancaster only has 1-2inchs compared to the 8 we've got at home. After a pit-stop for gear and crumpets in Lancaster we were back on the M6 and debating where to go. I've got three ice routes on my ticklist for this winter in the Lakes - Black Crag Icefall, Inaccessible Gully and Raven Crag Gully. They're all predominately ice routes meaning they take a reasonable cold spell to form. We immediately crossed off Innacsessable Gully as even though it was -15C outside it hasn't been substantially long enough since the last thaw for this to form. Black Crag Icefall is also fairly low and not completely north facing so we decided this could potentially waste our day if it wasn't in. And finally once we got into Borrowdale and saw the lack of snow on Raven we decided to give that a miss as well, as without good snow in the Gully and good ice cover apparently it can get quite a bit harder. So by default we went to Great End where there is 'always' stuff in.

Icefall finish on Window Gully.

We walked in from Seathwaite, relatively late compared to recent days only leaving the car at 9:30am, by 11am we were at Sprinkling Tarn eying the guidebook. First we set off up Window Gully II/III** and did the Upper Icefall Finish III 3**. We soloed up the first part of the gully which is good solid neve with a few ice steps before doing one long pitch from where the gully narrows up to the bay below the upper finish. The main icefall finish looked not to be in as the bottom half of the pillar was not touching down, it might go though as there are a few different lines around there. The upper icefall is fairly fat but lower down is hollow underneath and the bottom section has been broken off which meant high tool placements and some campusing on our axes to get foot purchase. The rest went with ease and took screws where needed. Rather then follow the snow slope to the top, after the ice fall we climbed leftward slanting mixed groove on the small buttress above tog gain the top to spice things up a little, don't think its in the book, but loads of people must of done it before.

Downclimbing Custs Gully.

We had lunch on the summit in brilliant sunshine with some fantastic views of the Lake District and further before down climbing Custs Gully I* to get back to the bottom of the buttress. This was stepped out allowing us to walk down most of it, there is also no cornice at the top.

Moving together up Central Gully.

Once back at the bottom we roped up with 30m of rope between us and set off up Central Gully Right Branch 200m II** moving together. The 3 main ice-steps added a little interest and the snow in between was stepped out and bomber neve allowing us to move fairly fast, doing the route in 35mins. Again no cornice and it looks like the lefthand variations are also in and seeing traffic. There was a little bit of wind-slab around in places, particularity noticeable in the bay at the bottom of the gully but not really enough to warrant any major hazard in my opinion.

Martin at the summit of Great End, complete with alpenglow and the full moon.

We topped out just at the sun was ducking behind Scafell and de-geared before heading down to Esk Hause in the failing light. Its worth noting that there are quite a few large patches of neve around on the tops which you could very easily take a large slide. Theres was a full moon which was so bright it almost meant we didn't need headtorches as we were casting shadows by the light of the moon - at night! We got back to the car at 6pm - fantastic day.

Thanks to Martin for the photos, I forgot my camera unfortunately.