Headed out with Doug to give the east gully of the first flatiron a go. A recon last weekend showed some good ice formed part way up the route, and the fresh snow + cold temps gave me some hope that things might go. After some deep wallowing (AK training for Doug ), we reached the face. I drew the lead, following a thinly iced chimney to a lower angle ramp. The chimney provided interesting climbing, with no protection. Upon reaching the lower angle ramp, the ice turned to unbonded snow, and still with no protection, climbing came to a halt. Various descent plans were discussed, including:
1) trying to tension the rope to the outside of the chimney and lowering

2) jettisoning my crampons and riding the gully like a slip and slide to the powder cone below

3) down climb the sketchy terrain, accepting the powder crashpad as a reasonable outcome.

Luckily good judgment and luck won out, and the downclimb went off without issue. At the base, the route was nice enough to drop a few wet slides on to all of our gear.