Avalanche forecast

Presidential Range

Mount Washington Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
Below
2 · Moderate
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Highlights

New snow and increasing wind speeds will create dangerous avalanche conditions today. Poor visibility will make terrain and snow assessment challenging. Careful route planning and conservative decision making are needed to avoid a natural or human-triggered avalanche today.

Avalanche problems

  • Wind Slabs

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

    6 - 8+ inches of new snow combined with increasing and shifting winds have the potential to create thick wind slabs on east, and south aspects. As the day progresses, expect these new slabs to become increasingly stiff and more likely to avalanche naturally or from the weight of a person. Poor visibility will make it difficult or impossible to assess conditions from a safe distance. 

    Additionally, wind slabs on northerly aspects may have had the opportunity to develop overnight with strong winds from the southwest transporting available snow from this past weekend’s storm.

Avalanche Discussion

Today’s steadily increasing wind speeds will have the potential to move a significant amount of snow onto lee aspects. In addition to the new snow from last night and today, soft snow was still blanketing areas of alpine terrain prior to the storm. All of this snow will be available for transport throughout the day today, tonight, and tomorrow. This combination of events has the potential to create slabs that are multiple feet thick with a poor, upside-down structure. The likelihood of natural and human-triggered avalanches today on multiple cardinal aspects will increase as the day goes on. Over the next 24-48 hours, steep snow slopes in lee areas will have the potential to avalanche, reload, and avalanche again. 

The team decided to add the southwest aspect to the wind slab problem this morning due to the uncertainty of wind direction, which is seen as a discrepancy between the National Weather Service and Mount Washington Observatory forecasts. In any solution, expect shifting winds through the day to create cross-loading in steep, sheltered terrain features. 

Assessing conditions today will be especially challenging due to blowing snow and poor visibility. The easiest and most effective way to avoid being caught in an avalanche today is through good route planning, conservative decision making, and avoiding avalanche terrain if you do not have the visibility to assess the conditions. 

The Lion Head Summer Trail is OPEN. Watch for drifting snow piling up. If deep snow is found, retreating and using the Winter Lion Trail is the safer option. 

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