Mount Washington Avalanche Center – Snow Safety Information for Mount Washington, Huntington Ravine, and Tuckerman Ravine

Avalanche Forecast for Sunday, January 19, 2020

Don’t commit to the steepest or largest slopes and gullies without carefully assessing the snow and terrain configuration.
Start with well supported slopes below 35 degrees without overhead hazard.
Mid slope aprons of snow which accumulated thick, hard wind slabs during the last storm could produce an avalanche more than capable of burying a person. Chute and beneath the ice cliffs in the Headwall in Tuckerman Ravine are examples.
The steepest areas previously scoured to the icy crust should be carefully assessed or perhaps best avoided altogether today since they may harbor the most reactive wind slabs. The upper ⅓ of gullies in Gulf of Slides come to mind.

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Latest Observations

Cutler River Drainage: soft snow, hard wind slab, sastrugi, and refrozen crust.

By Helon Hoffer – MWAC
01/18/2020

Crown in Hillman’s

By Ben Mirkin – Northern Vermont University / Mooney Mountain Guides
01/13/2020

Natural Avalanche Tuckerman Ravine

By Jeff Fongemie – MWAC
01/09/2020

Natural Avalanche Diagonal Gully

By Jeff Fongemie – Mount Washington Avalanche Center
01/09/2020

DANGER ZONES: MT. WASHINGTON

By Dougald MacDonald

At just 6,288 feet above sea level, Mt. Washington, the high point of the northeastern United States, packs a very serious mountain into a diminutive package. Home of the so-called “worst weather in the world,” Mt. Washington clocked a wind speed of 231 mph in 1934, and hurricane-force gusts (greater than 74 mph) are observed at the summit more than 100 days a year, on average. The summit observatory has recorded temperatures as low as -50°F (-46°C), and an estimated wind chill of -102°F was recorded in January 2004.

Rising at the intersection of major storm tracks and forming a prominent barrier to winds from the west, Mt. Washington and the Presidential Range also receive heavy precipitation. Each season averages 280 inches of snow, and wind-blown snow can pile up to depths of 10 to 40 feet in the east-facing ravines. Yet warmer temperatures can also be a problem, as freezing rain and fog—prime hypothermia conditions—are frequently encountered.

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