Avalanche forecast

Presidential Range

Mount Washington Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Alpine
1 · Low
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
1 · Low
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Out of date — this forecast expired 3 years ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

You could trigger a large avalanche in wind-drifted snow on east-facing and south-facing terrain at middle elevations. While conditions are becoming more stable, deeper snow and areas of smooth, bright white, pillow-shaped snow may harbor this lingering avalanche problem. Travel on wind textured snow surfaces to avoid these areas of potentially unstable snow.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2

    You could still find sheltered pockets of rounded, pillowy, smooth snow in east and south facing terrain at middle elevations today. These older wind slabs have built from the 18.4 inches of new snow over the past week. While these areas are stabilizing after two days of solar warming, potential instabilities remain. You are most likely to find these lingering instabilities in steep rollovers, sheltered terrain features, and terrain that has not seen as much solar gain. 

    These areas will be easy to identify as smooth-looking snow in contrast to the textured snow around it. Areas of more unstable snow have been found in softer, and deeper drifts. Test the sensitivity by digging down to the interface of the old snow and consider potential consequences as many of these sheltered pillowy snow drifts are harbored above exposed rocks and trees.

    Wind loaded and rounded, pillowy snow in Chute is an example of terrain features to carefully evaluate today. Additionally as they will be easy to identify, they will be easy to avoid.

Avalanche Discussion

While old wind slabs are becoming increasingly stable, new snow and increasing winds have the potential to create new wind slabs and tomorrow’s avalanche problem. You are unlikely to find this today during daylight hours as temperatures at Ravine levels are forecast above freezing so any precipitation that falls in middle elevations could melt into the snow surface. 

Once temperatures drop below freezing, expect the current snow surface to freeze and have the potential to become an icy bed surface for new avalanche activity as wind speeds ramp and begin to transport and load snow. If wind speeds increase sooner than forecast and you find snow actively loading and blowing from ridgelines, consider altering your plans as the avalanche hazard is increasing. 

With another day of above freezing temperatures forecast for Ravines, there is potential for wet loose sluff to be a consideration today. You can monitor this by observing how much of the surface snow is moistening as this unstructured, wet loose snow will be the amount of snow that is available to move underfoot. The size of this will be limited, but consider that a small amount of moving snow could cause a fall in steep terrain. 

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