In reply to Blackmud:
Me too. It was obvious that climbing was not going to be good. I was at the car park about 8am as I had driven down the night before. When the road did open there were about 40 people I guess, all in their early twenties by the looks of it, jangling their way into Coire an t-Sneachda. It reminded me of my own younger days when I wasn't experienced enough to work out that climbing was going to the the poor option.
To Mr Riley, nothing personal but everyone I was with (there were three of us) commented on how badly out of condition the Open Break looked. I don't mean to be critical but I am not sure I would tick that ascent in my guidebook as in winter condition.
Interesting to note you thought Fiacaill buttress had quite a bit of snow. I thought it has very little. Invernookie was predictably being trashed. Here's a picture of the buttress from about 1pm yesterday:
https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/t31.0-8/10845612_101...