On December 5 at approximately 12:00 pm a skier triggered a shallow soft slab avalanche near the top of Left Gully. The skier was caught and carried, and a short distance later triggered a 2nd, larger avalanche. The skier was carried 800 vertical feet, unharmed and landed on top of the snow at the mouth of the gully.
So far, winter in the White Mountains has struggled to take hold. Just over 12 inches of snow (2.64” SWE) has fallen at upper elevations this month, but warm, above freezing days continue to melt back any accumulations of snow. Don’t put those mountain bikes away yet. Looking ahead, the weather pattern suggests cooler temperatures which may be more productive for building early season ice and snowpack development.
Annual spring snow melt creates significant glide cracks, or crevasses, and undermined snow in the Lip area of Tuckerman Ravine. We close a section of the Tuckerman Ravine Trail where it passes through the Lip as a safety measure.
The Mount Washington Avalanche Center will no longer issue daily avalanche forecasts for the 2020/21 season. Instead, we will post an updated General Avalanche Information statement as needed, if significant snow or weather events that might vary from the typical daily changes that come with spring weather. We will also keep you informed about the official closure […]
The MWAC Snow Ranger Team hosted a training with NEK9 on Sunday, Feb 14. These dogs are critical to finding lost people in the woods and find many people every year in Vermont and New Hampshire. The recent deep burial in the Ammonoosuc was a reminder that disaster planning needs to include deep burials and multiple burials.
Wednesday, February 3, 2021, a NH Fish and Game officer contacted the lead snow ranger at the USFS Mount Washington Avalanche Center to ask for assistance in locating the vehicle of an individual who was reported missing on Tuesday night, Ian Forgays, a 54 year old male from Vermont. Recent communications between Ian and his friends suggested that he had been planning a day of backcountry skiing, either in Ammonoosuc Ravine or Monroe Brook on the west side of Mount Washington, on Monday, Feb. 1, prior to the start of a significant winter storm arriving Monday night and continuing Tuesday.
March 9, 2020. AMC Hermit Lake Caretaker reported seeing a person falling end-over-end “tomahawking” the length of Chute in Tuckerman Ravine around noon. The Caretaker and Snow Ranger responding were pleased to find that the patient had no apparent injuries. The skier walked downhill to Hermit Lake and was assisted to the road by snow […]
