The ACMG Guides Training Touring group spent the last four days based at the Bow Hut skiing nearby classic objectives. Very cold temps ranging from -17 to - 30C and moderate north and west winds created widespread wind effect and marginal skiing conditions by the end of the trip.
The glaciers have very low snow coverage for this time of year ranging from 80cm-140cm of snowpack on average. There are many visible crevasses and the weak base to the snowpack does not inspire confidence. We generally travelled roped up and chose very conservative lines for unroped ski descents.
Our avalanche concerns included windslabs and deep persistent slab (weak facetted basal layers). We observed numerous natural windslabs on east to southeast aspects with several stepping down to deeper instabilities. Large avalanche were also initiated by cornice fall and ice fall events. (Mt Ayesha size 3, east facing moraine near Bow Falls size 2.5, St Nicolas Peak east face size 2.5).
Overall we kept the days shorter and the objectives conservative given the extremely cold temps and conditions.

Kirsten Knechtel, Marc Piche, Erica Roles, Darek Glowacki and ACMG GTS group