Huntington Ravine on Tuesday, January 17, 2017
It was hard to find any wind slab that formed from Sunday’s one inch in Huntington Ravine. True to form, strong winds scoured gullies down to the melt-freeze crust from last Thursday. That being said, the snow coverage in places is impressive. Thanks to several December storms that came in on south winds, Escape Hatch, South, Odell and Central Gullies are well-filled in with snow. All of the ice bulges in those can currently be avoided on snow, albeit perhaps a narrow strip of crampon-worthy snow. Check out the following pictures from yesterday and today:
Escape Hatch
South Gully
Odell Gully
Mike Pelchat and Matty Bowman on Pinnacle
Central Gully
The power of the sun is impressive. During the day today, the fan underneath the north wall was softening quite nice. Lots of small icefall from the cliffs around Diagonal and lots of rock showing in the northern gullies.
Yale Gully
Damnation Gully
North Gully
Thinking ahead to tomorrow, snow is still in the forecast. It’s looking like around 5″ by the time the sun rises tomorrow. Winds are dead calm at the moment, but will increase to the mid-20s and swing as far as the SE. Snow showers may continue through the day tomorrow with another few inches accumulating on the ground.
Courtesy of the National Weather Service
See you on the hill.
-Helon
The Mount Washington Avalanche Center is a partnership between the White Mountain National Forest, White Mountain Avalanche Education Foundation and Friends of Tuckerman Ravine and other community organizations. The avalanche forecast applies only to backcountry areas, not operating ski areas, and describes general avalanche conditions which vary locally. The avalanche information provided is the sole responsibility of the USDA Forest Service.