King Ravine

With a good weather window, we made the trek to one of the more remote ravines in the forecast range. 

Although the north facing gullies are still holding snow and see less solar gain, they are still subject to spring hazards. Undermined snow, holes, and ice fall in certain areas are still things to be on the lookout for. Travel though partially melted out chokes and traverses requires increasingly creative route finding in order to travel on durable surfaces and avoid damaging vegetation. 

Sheltered areas of Great Gully held small, deeper patches of (now wet from warming) bright white newer snow likely leftover from the 6 inches of snow recorded on the summit of Mt. Washington on April 19th/20th and/or 1.2 inches on the 22nd/23rd. Soft corn snow made for good turns between 5100 and 4600ft, while lower in the gully, some minor sluff management of wet snow was required, likely due to significant warming and a lack of an overnight refreeze.... A good reminder that timing with regard to aspect and temperatures plays a big role in springtime surface conditions. 

We were on the lookout and saw a few broken branches, no obvious debris piles or swaths of broken trees stood out as evidence of any large avalanches from the winter months.