Huntington Ravine has Moderate avalanche danger today. Natural avalanches are unlikely and human triggered avalanches are possible. Use caution in steep terrain.

It's a cold, crisp morning today on Mt. Washington. Monday's light density snow is still moving around a bit on increased winds. Today's weather forecast is for gradually decreasing winds through the day, so that should put a halt to the current loading. Based on this decrease, our concerns for today are less about the potential for natural avalanches than they are for human triggered avalanches. While the diminishing winds will lower the potential for natural avalanches, the chance of human triggered slides does not go away with the drop in wind speeds. Human triggered avalanches are our main concern today.

Yesterday in the field we found a mix of surfaces including icy hardpack and some very sensitive slabs. There is a good amount of old surface showing in many areas, but where there is new snow it's quite touchy. Thinking of the snowpack from the bottom up, we've got the very hard old surface providing a strong base. In some places this old surface has been exposed by winds, elsewhere it is buried under new snow. The new snow has a couple layers in it as well. Just on top of the old surface is a thin layer of unconsolidated snow, probably from what fell with E winds early on Monday. Above this is very soft slab. The fracturing we witnessed yesterday failed on the nearly imperceptible interface of this soft slab and the unconsolidated snow. As icing on the cake, early this morning the NW winds cranked it up a notch and added some denser slabs to the top. What this all adds up to are slabs that are very sensitive to human triggers. The locations you'll find the largest slabs are those that are most sheltered from NW winds, such as the Lip, Headwall, and Bowl. That said, NW winds can load snow into most of our forecast areas, so pay attention to what's underfoot and around you. Any areas of new snow sitting atop the old surface should be viewed with skepticism. The snow is sensitive enough to propagate quite far from were you are standing, so be aware of how much new snow is above and around you. With all that said, there are lot of options for travel that keep you on old surface and away from the touchy slabs. This would be your best bet for safe travel.

Until we have enough new snow to make the hard surface conditions a memory, you will need crampons, an ice axe and solid self arrest skills to travel safely in steep terrain. This includes travel on the Lion Head Winter Route. The Sherburne Ski Trail has hard pack conditions with some skied up new snow. I think the ski areas might call this loose packed powder hardpack, or some other indecipherable phrase. Call it what you will, it's a difficult but enjoyable ski for the time being. Hopefully this will change with the next storm coming in late Thursday night and Friday.