2025-04-26T07:00:00Z
This year I proposed to do the Big day out ski traverse of 5040 - Adder as a human powered loop. We would ascend 5040 via the NW ridge, ski traverse 5040 - Jack’s - Adder and bike from Adder back to NW ridge trail head on Marion main. Micheal Duncan, Huib De Roo and I made our way to the trailhead of the 5040 NW ridge after stashing bikes (and very importantly shoes!) on Adder as close to the snow line as we were able to drive. We got 4 hours of rest before being on our way at 3 am. It was my fourth time to do this traverse as a day trip and I found myself wondering if I will ever see the first section of this trail in daylight as we hiked up the forest with our skis/boards on our backs. It is always a welcome relief to remove the skis from the pack and start skinning which we did after about 1.5 hours.
It did not take long before we found ourselves on very crusty snow making ski crampons essential. With soft snow conditions these slopes make for easy skiing and touring but with the crust transform into exposed and treacherous and so we strapped on our helmets and pulled out our ice axes. Two sections required boot packing making for the first of many, many transitions. Rodney Newcomb joined us for the human powered loop with some slight twists to our approach. He reversed the transport logistics and left his truck on Adder, biked up Marion main and made his way to the Hišimy̓awiƛ hut where he spent the night and joined us for the ski traverse on the summit of 5040.
Clear skies made for a beautiful start of the day and after enjoying the views from the 5040 summit we got to the fun part and had our first ski descent before 7 am. There is still a tonne of snow above 1000 metres with a 3 metre snow pack filling in the contours making it so efficient to ramble around on skis. Descending from 5040 you spend the majority of the day on ridges and summits, with plenty of spectacular open alpine slopes. It is possible to ski or ski tour most of the route with only a few short boot packs required. Skiing the N-ridge of Jack’s peak is one of the major perks of the day. It is a long and continuous run with a few key sections through cliff bands leading to the col between Jack’s and Adder - a spot we would use to fill up our water bottles.
Climbing back up Adder makes for a substantial climb, especially late in the day but is worth it with its reward of an excellent ski out which is mostly downhill interrupted only by a few short uphill sections. Michael could not resist the temptation of catching a ride in Rodney’s truck while Huib and I were starting to hustle in hopes of catching the last ferry back home to Salt Spring island that night. Relieved to change shoes after 14 hours in ski boots we switched gears and hopped on our bikes with our skis strapped on our packs and enjoyed the fast ride of the Adder logging road. Upon arriving at the Marion main logging road we stashed our gear behind a log and rode the remaining 6.5 km back to our car and made the last ferry with 10 minutes to spare. A classic big day out - Island style.
