I guided an ascent of Rogan's Gully today, Dec 13th. The route is in challenging shape. First pitch is fine, second is very narrow and won't survive a heavy hand until it gains more ice. The grade 1 pitch leading to the third bolted anchor fell away in the heat and is a bunch of fractured plates lying in the gut of the gully. Today a hand's width of 1 cm deep bubble pack ice bordering the left and right sides of a six inch wide trickle of water offered risky tip toeing. The narrows where thin on ice and snow depth and challenging. Last pitch thinish and hollow on the right hand variation. Left hand variation looked fine.
Several pools of water along the route and a number of exposed flows, all manageable or avoidable.
Spooky to feel how much heat this December's sun is packing. We had a couple of snow ball instabilities roll down steep southerly aspects at 11:00 when the sun was out. I was happy to have the clouds stream back in and take the heat of the sun away.
Having said all of that, we had a great climb.