Two skiers were uninjured after being hit by a loose snow avalanche in Tuckerman Ravine on Thursday.
According to a field observation on the Mount Washington Avalanche Center website, the avalanche carried one skier roughly 30 meters and also swept away a ski from another skier.
The group included four skiers — Adam Bidwell, Brent Underkoffler, Jimmy Riopel, and Spencey Ralston — who went to Tuckerman Ravine on Mount Washington on Thursday, November 6 to assess conditions and collect observations to share, while also getting some skiing in. All four reportedly have spent extensive time skiing, climbing, guiding, and volunteering on rescues in that terrain.
According to the observation summary, the four collected at the base of the ravine and split into two groups of two. Party A went to Chute and Party B went toward Chute, North variation.
While traversing a slide path to a sheltered zone beneath the buttress that lies between Chute and Chute South, a loose snow avalanche occurred. The avalanche scoured the start zone and deposited debris in the runout zone above Chute, went through the Chute funnel, and hit the lead skier, carrying him approximately 30 meters downslope. The second skier in Party A was at the edge of the slide and had his ski taken by the slide.
The lead skier in Party B observed the slide as it exited the Chute funnel, propagated laterally to the north 100 feet all the way to the base of the Tuckerman icefall.
The skiers reported that in the aftermath of the slide, the runout zone — the zone below the snowfield rollover at roughly 5,100 feet but above the choke at roughly 4,700 feet — had been scoured to the base rock with observable crown depth greater than 30 centimeters. The avalanche debris was over 3 meters deep.
