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

Today's ratings are the same as yesterday but quite a bit has happened in the past 24 hours. Yesterday Justin and Jeff spent a lot of time in the field testing the stability of slabs in a variety of areas, particularly in Huntington. Just as they became comfortable enough to think about dropping some areas to Low, the winds kicked up and started blowing snow around and new slabs were created. The snow that is being blown around is from this week's handful of weak systems, including yesterday's snow showers. The Summit only recorded .3" or .8 cm of accumulation but mid-elevations picked up more as snow fell throughout the day in the ravines. We have been talking about how these nickel and dime storms can add up and create stability issues. Well, as the winds increased and shifted to the NW, they found enough snow to make Hillman's Highway run its full path. I think this occurred early this morning based on how the debris looks and looking at the hourly weather observations that show increasing winds and blowing snow on every observation since yesterday around 4:00 pm. Today's areas of most concern remain the Bowl, Lip, Headwall and Sluice in Tuckerman Ravine. There is more wind effect visible in the Ravine than recent days leaving Left Gully scoured on the climber's left side through most of the gully. Wind waves are visible across the lower south side of Tuckerman as well but snow is still being deposited in the Headwall and Lip. In Huntington Ravine the areas of most concern are South Gully and Central Gully. They are on the upper end of the Moderate rating.

The past few days of field observations have found a lot of different layers that you should be interested in if you plan on being in avalanche terrain. The slabs you need to be most concerned about are the softer ones that have been deposited recently. When I say softer I mean everything from fist to 1 finger slabs that have stored elastic energy and want to propagate. We have found a variety of pencil hard slabs and even some older 1 finger slabs that don't display a lot of reactivity. The hardness and depth of slab will change as you move through an area so don't rely on any single observation or stability test. The weak layers are usually unconsolidated snow over a harder layer. We did find some faceting above the January thaw layer that is worth watching for as well. For route finding, choose an area that has old surface showing and doesn't have large areas of new slab. That would eliminate most of Tuckerman Ravine from your travel options as well as South and Central Gullies in Huntington. If you find yourself in a position that requires you to travel across a slab, stay off to the side of it and move through it one at a time. Cold temperatures are not going to allow the problem areas to settle much so expect instabilities to persist into the weekend. If you are going to be up here today expect a cold and windy day. High temperatures on the Summit will struggle to reach the single digits below zero F and NW winds are exceeding their forecasted speeds of 60 to 75 mph (96 to 120 kph).

We always recommend bringing crampons, an ice axe and having solid self arrest skills if you plan on traveling in steep terrain, including the Lion Head Winter Route. The Sherburne Ski Trail is open with good coverage from top to bottom.