In reply to kevin stephens:
These pictures are about eight hours old.
Here is a view of Rive Droite, as you can see it's a little thin.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b305/prh2k1/rive%20right%20021216_zps57oh...
...and here is a view of... Little Scotland? Is that what it's called? It's not really my scene, I'm afraid. As you can see, these nails mixed routes are even thinner.
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b305/prh2k1/scotland%20prh%20021216_zpsd3...
I'm afraid I don't have a picture of Rive Gauche as the bottom of the helicopter was in the way, but as you can imagine following the two pictures above, it's in about the same state. If I get some time over the next few days, maybe Sunday or Monday, I'll try and hike towards the Cremerie and see how those icefalls are forming, but from a distance it just looks like a shiny veneer over wet slabs at the moment.
I have to say, ice and mixed really aren't my scene out here, so my knowledge on the matter is limited and I'd love to hear any info from other people, but maybe those two pictures will be of some use. Personally, I'm going to stick to ski running and things for now!
Of course, two weeks is a long time in politics and ice climbing, so who knows what might happen? We are in a big high pressure at the moment, there's definitely no new weather coming for at least six or seven days, and the zero degree isotherme is hovering around 2000m . It's currently early autumn down in the valley, and early winter crossed with mid-spring up high.
Post edited at 21:38
