We had a chilly lunch stop at Red Tarn in the bothy bag. It looked like the strong north easterly of the last couple of days had stripped a reasonable amount of snow from the east face of Helvellyn although we couldn't see the state of the cornices. The team in Gully 2 seemed to be making good progress and there were no obvious signs of any avalanche activity. Underfoot we were still post holing for the majority of the time, especially on the lee slopes. However the popular paths are well trodden in and a lot better going. What we need now are a couple of days of freeze thaw to bring in some amazing climbing conditions. The trickiest part of the day was the sheet ice on the vehicle track back down to Glenridding.
We also found a couple of snow holes dug in to some deep drifts. Didn't look like they'd been slept in but they gave us a sheltered coffee break.
