Toured on south end of the East face of Little Bow peak on sunday the 23rd.
Reasonable december ski travel uphill and down, but you are on the ground when you walk. Average snowpack was approx. 20cms of fluff to ski in, over 50cms of fairly strong snow over 30cms of facetted junk over the ground.
Triggering a small slab avalanche on skiis seemed possible. What was worrisome was the thought of that small slab causing a failure deep in the facetted junk and thus getting smoked by a BIG avalanche. The wind was moving lots of snow at ridgetops, we had some small whumphs and it felt like the avalanche hazard was going to get worse before it gets better.
From my one day in this neighbourhood I thought boring terrain choices seemed like a really good idea for awhile.
Scattered sleigh tracks above 3000m
Larry Stanier
Mountain Guide