Island Alpine Guides

Island Alpine Guides conditions recon today. We searched out north facing lee slopes in order to find the most preserved snowpack. In these features we found a snowpack ranging from 1m at 1150m, to 180cm at 1450m. This is a stark contrast to some solar aspects, areas with thicker tree cover, and below treeline elevations which have limited to no snow cover. We observed 10-15cm of low density snow sitting on a supportive crust. This snow had been moved around at ridgetop, forming windslabs that were up to 50cm thick, and were cracking underfoot. We avoided any big open steep lee features because of this observation. Where the snow was unaffected by wind, it skied quite nicely. Some sluffing observed in steeper features at treeline. Island Alpine Guides accesses the Mount Washington backcountry under agreements with the landowners and operators.