In reply to Jamie B: High Jamie, a few folk have suggested VI,6 or VI,7 - think powder/rime is the norm. Generally quite stormy weather required to get it white.
Crowberry Direct is an interesting one, I tried it with Graham Stein a few years ago. It's hard, the first ascent team were on fire. Did a bit of a write up here on the blog
http://blog.jamesthacker.co.uk/2011/02/direct-route-crowberry-tower.html Some extracts from Alex Small's letter to Rab Anderson:
"Alex CD Small - dated 6 Jan 1981 - excerpt as follows:
“I find that the Crowberry winter climb was done on April 3rd 1938. (He was checking his diary).
It was a rough day of hail squalls & sun bursts, & snow & ice was pretty thick above 2000 ft., enough to make the way from the Water Slide up the early bit of Curved Ridge messy & toilsome.
I swept away snow from the holds on Abraham’s left traverse but once started I found I couldn’t manage to clear the further over so I went back, took off my boots & tried it in my stocking soles. The famous finger tip hold at the move up was iced over & I thought I was beaten but my soles stuck so well I did a press up & sweeping & climbing I finished the pitch.
The next pitch was hard & we could now see that the slabby section up to the foot of the Tower was mostly an ice sheet with runnels of snow. As we only had one axe (& borrowed at that) we did a slanting line across and down onto Hyphen Rib – which we knew well as we had done the first ascent. Straightforward until we came to the overhanging slit which leads up to the crest of the Crowberry Ridge. This again beat us until I jammed the axe in a crack & once more in stocking soles, used the axe head as a handhold then a foothold & finding some unsuspected holds for my left hand made the crest. Hauling the sack, my boots & my second, who came off twice, was bloody tiring & trying to force my feet into frozen boots rather piled on the agony.
Fortunately that was the end of the difficulties & we went over the Tower – nearly dropping the axe down Crowberry Gully, & got down to the road in another blinding hail storm.”
!!