Up on Polar Circus on Thursday and found the lower part of the route to be thin in spots (top outs on the steps) but overall pretty good for end of November. The Pencil is in, albeit barely. I could put my arms around it at the bottom (didn't climb it). The snow slope was blown free in some spots and had up to 45cms in others. Awkward walking over the frozen scree/rock that is usually snow covered. The pitch after the slope was very wet and hard to get good gear (ice lenses). The Ribbon pitch was plastic.
We turned around at the base of the last pitch after 2 fairly good sized rocks fell out of a roof above the pitch on the right hand side. The sun was quite warm and there weren't any clouds all day.
Cheers
Mike Stuart
Alpine Guide