Huntington Ravine has Low avalanche danger. Natural avalanches are very unlikely and human triggered avalanches are unlikely except in isolated pockets. Normal caution is advised.

Yesterday was a beautiful day to be in the mountains. The sun finally showed itself after many days of hiding in the clouds. Field observations continued to confirm our feeling on spatial variability concerning slab hardness. Soft, hard, steel, soft, softer, very hard, back to soft, etc. It's enough to make your thighs schizophrenic preparing for the unknown as you never quite know what the next 20 feet of snow under your skis will be like. These varied hardnesses also relate directly to slab stability. Areas of very hard slab that offer only slight boot penetration have a great deal of tensile strength bridging over weaker layers below. Areas of soft slab aren't as resilient to human load, transferring more new weight directly to the buried weaknesses. Moving from the micro snow pocket discussion to a macroanalysis of the Ravines, in general, Tuckerman has 2 distinct results from recent high winds. First, most of Left Gully and the southern side of the Ravine was highly wind affected, and second, the SE aspects of the northern side received new snow deposition. Again this is "generally"; there are specific locales such as high in the Chute that you should be suspicious of. This is all complicated by this morning's current snow shower/squall activity. Although forecasts are not pointing to much in the way of accumulations today the current reality is starting to say otherwise. Due to this and the forecasted winds expected to increase and shift from the W to the NW we have bumped Left gully and Hillman's Highway up to Moderate and the Lip up to Considerable. These changes are directly due to the current snowfall rates and the potential for them to continue. Hermit lake has picked up about .5" (1.25cm) over the past hour with no signs of abating. If precipitation does shut down soon we will not reach these new avalanche ratings for these 3 areas, but we feel these ratings will likely be reached. In Huntington where the whole Ravine was a solid Low due to substantial scouring we are only concerned about today's new snowfall, not adding load to already unstable slabs such as in Tuckerman. Expect a number of Huntington pockets to develop with some light sloughing and spindrifts as snow slips off of steep blue ice and the like. Temperature are anticipated to fall to almost -15F (-26C) and on to -20F (-29C) tonight while winds increase through the same period.

The big news is the impending storm that will move into the area tomorrow night and hang around all day Wednesday. This will be a main topic in Tuesday's advisory, but as it stands right now we are finally in for a good one. Expect quite a bit of snow and an elevated avalanche danger. We will likely see quite a bit of warming occur as the system moves in. So although it doesn't appear anything close to rain it won't be western powder either. Cross you fingers and put the plow back on the truck.

THE LION HEAD WINTER ROUTE IS OPEN. This is a steep and challenging route. Crampons, an ice axe, and the ability to properly use this equipment are necessary for safe travel on this route.