Avalanche forecast

Presidential Range

Mount Washington Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

New snow and wind will create sensitive snow drifts that could avalanche from the weight of a single person. You are most likely to trigger an avalanche on steep south-facing slopes above 4000 feet in elevation. Watch out for snow that is deeper than the tops of your boots and cracks in the new snow that shoot out from underneath you. These are warning signs of a sensitive, dangerous avalanche problem.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    1–1.5

    Today, it is likely that a person could trigger a wind slab avalanche on south-facing slopes from 2 - 3 inches of new light density snow that is being transported by the wind. These slabs are likely to be thin, but in some areas could have the ability to bury a person. 

    Warning signs for this hazard include blowing or drifting snow at the ridgelines, seeing shooting cracks in snow underneath your feet or skis, and finding deeper areas of snow where you sink past the tops of your boots. Careful snowpack assessment, route selection, and travel techniques are necessary for safe travel in or around avalanche terrain. Dig down to where new snow rests on top of an old, crusty snow surface to assess the stability and depth of new wind slabs.

Avalanche Discussion

Enter the mountains today prepared to find a sensitive snowpack where the wind has drifted new snow onto steep, south-facing slopes. A north wind that has steadily increased in speed overnight has likely been forming wind slabs that are 6 - 12 inches thick with a strong-over-weak characteristic. When considering this structure, an increasing wind ramp, a slick bed surface, and the light density of the new snow, it may be easy to find very sensitive wind slabs on steep south-facing slopes today. Prior to 2.9 inches of new snow overnight, a widespread firm crust was common across avalanche terrain in the Presidential Range. This likely bed surface provides an obvious layer to use as a reference for digging and assessing the stability of the snowpack at this interface. 

Winds will continue to remain unseasonably low through the day and through tomorrow.  In combination with decreasing temperatures, expect this wind slab to remain sensitive to the weight of a human through tomorrow. 

Safe travel in south-facing avalanche terrain will require vigilance in your travel techniques, route selection, and snowpack assessment today. The lighter-than-normal wind speeds might mean that new wind slabs have formed high in the starting zones, where it is difficult to safely assess. Understand that conditions and stability low in avalanche paths are probably not representative of the stability of the snowpack in the upper sections of terrain features. 

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