Presidential Range

You are unlikely to trigger an avalanche in today’s icy, refrozen snowpack. Crampons, an ice axe, and the skills to use them will be necessary for safe travels in steep terrain. Travel with deliberate caution to avoid a long sliding fall. While there are small patches of drifted snow between 3000 and 5000 feet, they pose a greater risk as a fall hazard rather than an avalanche threat.

After nearly a week of warm temperatures, the snowpack has significantly refrozen due to a drop in temperatures, substantially lowering the risk of an avalanche in the older snow layers. The 3 inches of new snow that fell early yesterday on the summit of Mount Washington was heavily affected by strong northwest winds, resulting in small, thin, and isolated patches of drifted snow between 3800 and 5000 feet in elevation that are likely to be difficult to trigger.

When traveling on steep slopes today, exercise additional caution and be sure to have your mountaineering equipment and well-practiced skills to stay safe. It's important to remember your ice axe may not be sufficient to effectively stop a fall today, and any fall in steep terrain will be highly consequential. Preventing a fall in the first place is the most effective strategy for safety.

OBSERVATIONS: Please consider submitting an observation of what you are seeing in your travels. Submitting an observation hones your skills, informs other users, and improves our forecasts.