Huntington Ravine has MODERATE and LOW avalanche danger today. All gullies except the Escape Hatch have Moderate avalanche danger. Natural avalanches are unlikely and human triggered avalanches are possible. Use caution in steeper terrain. The Escape Hatch has Low avalanche danger. Natural avalanches are very unlikely and human triggered avalanches are unlikely except in isolated pockets. Normal caution is advised.

Light snow continued yesterday bringing the snow total since the beginning of the storm to just over 15" (38.1 cm). The unusual factor of this entire event continues to be wind speeds. Forecasted wind sppeds and direction did not come to fruition yesterday during daylight hours, but did increase after dark with high gusts between 50-60 mph (80-97 kph) for a few hours overnight. This brought in some new snow deposition into the Ravines, although for the most part loading has been light over the past 24 hours. With actual wind speeds staying below expectations, on the ground conditions in the Ravines was approximately one rating lower than we forecasted for Tuesday. This wind lull will slowly change over the next 24 hours as winds have shifted to the W and are expected to ramp up today approaching 40 mph (64 kph). This trend will continue overnight with gusting over 60mph (100 kph)anticipated tomorrow. This is critical bull's-eye information for increasing snow instability heading into the weekend. We still have a great deal of snow sitting in higher open alpine areas waiting for the right wind speeds to move it into avalanche terrain. So although we all agree that there are lots of bushes, cliffs, rocks and other topographic features breaking up most patches of snow, realize there are, and will be, some very touchy areas as well. Water ice that has been buried can act as a great bed surface for avalanches and will exacerbate this touchy nature. Light density snow, which fell for the second half of the storm with moderate wind speeds, can generate some very unstable conditions. It is very important to keep the idea of spatial variability in your mind while traveling because you are apt to find very different snow stability moving from pocket to pocket. Remember that it isn't the size of the avalanche that counts, it's the consequences.

As for today, you can expect all forecast areas to have locations where it will be possible to trigger an avalanche. As mentioned earlier, the light N winds of yesterday morning moved some snow into both Ravines. In Huntington, the northern gullies (Yale, Damnation, and North) picked up quite a bit of snow, creating pockets of instability throughout these gullies. This morning's field observations also showed that O'Dells, Central, and Pinnacle picked up a fair amount of snow in places. Over in Tuckerman, the area that most concerns us is the Lip and the many pockets of slab sitting on blue ice throughout the Headwall. In general, wherever you travel today, be on the lookout for signs of localized instabilities.

By now you should have refreshed your avalanche skills and your beacon should have fresh high quality alkaline batteries powering it. Your annual early season review of safe travel rules, techniques for assessing snow stability, and signing up for an avalanche course should all be behind you. We now have all the avalanche courses offered in the valley this winter on our website, tuckerman.org. Remember, maintaining avalanche skill takes practice and effort. Your life depends on it!