5040 Long Weekend

Youngbloodben , Tuesday 18th February, 2025 6:15PM

Spent Sunday to Tuesday at 5040 with good company! Saturday overnight into Sunday deposited roughly 50cm of storm snow, dry at first then progressively settling into a slab as temperatures rose. On Monday trees were shedding the snow on their shoulders generating significant pinwheeling even as early as 9am. By noon it was 8 degrees at the hut. Cornices had developed on the 5040 ridge line from south to southwest aspects and the entire bowl was very obviously wind loaded. Skiing in the morning was on a supportive crust and provided fun fast turns. We skied from the summit down the south face over where the group ahead of us had ski cut, then down benches to the lake. An evening lap provided very heavy and wet turns just above the hut on a supported ramp from the col, southwest aspect. By Tuesday morning it was gusting strong winds and raining at the hut. The ski out was treacherous on a saturated, heavy snowpack. Temps at 8am were 2 degrees. Did not seem like much of an overnight freeze, though hard to tell because of the rain. Avalanche obs: A group ski cut an isolated feature in the alpine at ridgetop, south aspect, which resulted in a sz 2 windslab avalanche. It propagated out of the gully type feature along the bottom of a rock band and across the next gully feature which resulted in a larger windslab avalanche than typically expected out of a feature that size (see photo). Likely slid on a layer of facets given the current snowpack and its propagation through multiple terrain features. Ran to bottom of runout and partially down another gully off the bench. Also noted a size 2 natural wind slab on a loaded feature across the bowl (see photos) likely from Sunday as a group at the hut noted hearing an avalanche but could not see given the visibility. Southwest aspect in the alpine. Next to that avalanche was another Na sz 1.5 windslab, stopped midway down the track. On the northeast side of the mountain, from the summit, we noticed the debris of a likely size 2.5 windslab propagating far on a cross loaded convex roll, natural. Multiple dry loose avalanches out of steep terrain. Overall a great weekend in the hut thanks to the snacks, whiskey, and company… if you forgot a phone up there email me at bwoloshy@ualberta.ca and I’ll get it back to you!