Having looked at the weather and avalanche forecasts last night we opted to head out to Lurchers Crag in the Lairig Ghru in search of some ice to climb. The plan was to head out reasonably early and get the 6km walk in from the Sugar Bowl car park through the Chalamain Gap done leaving us time to get two routes done and then walk out. We thought an ice route and a ridge would make for a good day out.
The guidebook stated that there were two un-named short ice routes that were graded 2/3 at the start northern end of the crag. Having found them we geared up and started out on the route, the ice was thawing quickly and unstable so we backed off and headed for another route, the plan now to climb one of the ridges. Traversing high along the banked out snow along the crag we came across the start of Window Gully (IV) where the Ice looked to be good and with the added altitude it should have been more stable in the cooler temperatures.
We climbed the first 45m pitch of relatively good Ice and consolidated snow but when Gwilym started on the second pitch the ice was clearly in poor condition due to the previous days thaw and the over night temperature drop had not improved the ice as expected.
Having built a suitable abseil station using we backed off the route and headed back to the car park. The day ended with 13km of walking with stunning views of the Northern Corries and the Lairig Ghru but unfortunately no climbing. With hinesight we should have stuck to the original plan of climbing a ridge but it was good to practise escaping from a route so not all was lost.
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