Conditions in Tuckerman's Ravine, Mt Washington

[Old Hillwalker]

Some nice current photographs in the Whites

http://timefortuckerman.com/cgi-bin/r?http://www.tuckerman.org/photos/tucks

[jersey joe]

I hit that site and read this in the incident report...

"
01-18-2008: At 9:20 pm on January 18 the USFS Snow Rangers were informed that a solo climber was overdue from his climb in Huntington Ravine. The overdue climber had signed into the winter climbers register at Pinkham Notch with the plan of climbing Central Gully in Huntington Ravine. According to his friends who reported him overdue, he had experience in many gullies in Huntington Ravine and had talked about Odell Gully as another option for his day.
A team searched the access routes into Huntington Ravine between 10:00 pm and midnight on the 18th. Due to snow stability concerns, search teams didn’t enter avalanche terrain until first light the next day to begin searching Huntington Ravine. Shortly after sunrise, the missing climber’s body was found in avalanche debris below Odell Gully. The climber was on top of the debris and died as a result of being avalanched out of Odell Gully. He was put in a technical litter, lowered 500 ft to the floor of the Ravine and transported to Pinkham Notch by the USFS snowcat."

[Pokey2006]

These guys had a cold night up there this weekend:


MOUNT WASHINGTON, N.H. (AP) -- Two Massachusetts hikers lost the trail in a whiteout on Mount Washington, but did not lose their lives, because they were prepared to deal with the changing weather.
Daniel Molloy, 51, of East Sandwich, and Nilton Motta, 31, of Plymouth, had planned a day hike to the summit on Sunday. By 4 p.m., they were caught in a whiteout somewhere above treeline. Blinded by driving snow, they lost the trail and found themselves slogging through brush and snowdrifts.
Eventually, they dug a deep hole in the snow and hunkered down, using extra gear and broken branches to insulate themselves from temperatures near zero and winds near 70 mph. At dawn Monday, they got their bearings and hiked off the mountain as searchers began looking for them, Fish and Game Officer Mark Ober said.
Molloy said until they got into the hole and out of the wind, he was concerned about his hiking partner.
"He went into what looked to me like hypothermia," Molloy told WGIR radio. "He was shivering and a little bit despondent."
Molloy dug their shelter with a pan they had intended to use to make some cappuccino at the summit.
Ober said neither man needed any medical help because they were prepared with extra gear and clothing, as well as food, water, lights, a cooking stove and climbing gear.
"Being prepared with good gear and basic survival knowledge, these men were able to spend a night in inhospitable conditions and come out of the situation with no more than a chill," he said.
Molloy said the sudden snowstorm was unpredictable and unexpected.
"We were in the wrong place at the wrong time with the weather," he said.