Bow Hut to Mt.Gordon

Our group was at the Bow Hut on Friday, January 19 - Sunday, January 21. Conditions on the skin track across Bow Lake and the canyon were fine with the larger than usual damp spots. The approach to the hut after the canyon required additional route finding due to a lower snow pack. The moraine field below the hut had lots of exposed rocks. This made the ski in/out a little more challenging. Our goal was to ski Mt.Gordon on Saturday. The weather was cloudy, overcast and extremely windy. The snow conditions presented as wind blown slabs and wind deposited snow. There was a thick layer of wind blown snow strong enough to support our group while breaking trail. Very, very low snow coverage on the glacier. Lots of open crevasses that made the route finding difficult. Probing on the glacier while travelling to Mt.Gordon showed the snow pack to be extremely variable ranging from 200-300 cm to 10 cm. Some spots were bare ice. Deeper depths were found on the main ski slope above the hut and the Onion. We did not make it to Gordon, so we retraced our steps and skied the slope above the hut. This slope was still very wind blown, with below average snow but was skiable.