Section of Tuckerman Ravine, NH Closed For Season

The post explained that only this section of the trail is closed, and that this annual closure is due to the magnitude of the crevasses and undermining, along with the severe consequences of a fall in this area. (36 CFR 261.55(a)). 

For hikers looking to pass through this area, the Avalanche Center advises using the Lion Head Trail instead. Lion Head trail can be located to looker's right on the map of Tuckerman Ravine below. 

We spoke with the director of the Mount Washington Avalanche Center, Jeff Fongemie. He shed some light on how conditions are assessed, the potential dangers this area presents if not closed, and how these dangerous crevasses form. 

Fongemie explained that while this area closes every spring, the timing often changes.

"It doesn't go by the calendar. It goes in snow time. We could have big snow years or low snow years, but, typically, it ends up happening right around the end of April, the 1st week in June. We close that area when it becomes unsafe for humans to travel across due to deep open holes or snow bridges, those sorts of things." 

Fongemie also explained how these conditions are assessed, saying, "we're the avalanche forecasting team, so we're in the field a lot. We're watching it. We monitor the size of the holes that open, and we generally ski and climb around that area before it gets to be too bad."

Specifically, Fongemie noted that the team watches "the holes develop, and as soon as it become large enough for a human to fall into, or there are snow bridges that are dangerous for humans to travel on, we close."

Watch a climber navigate a snow bridge in the video below. 

We asked Fongemie what the dangers were for people traveling in these areas, if they were not monitored. He said, "falling in a hole and not being able to get back out is the obvious danger. We've had unsuspecting people fall in those holes and not survive. It can often be an unsurvivable fall." 

"They go onto the snowpack. There's water rushing water that travels through there, and oftentimes, people just can't get back out, and we can't get to them because it's too dangerous."

When asked why these crevasses form, Jeff explained that it can happen in different ways, but he also clarified the term "crevasse." 

"We call them crevasses, but, technically, that's probably not the best way. It's an easy way to describe a message because it looks like a crevasse. If you look up the term crevasse, it's something that happens on a glacier, and a glacier is a piece of snow that exists all year long. And and this isn't that." 

Watch a short video of a skier falling into a glacial crevasse below. 

But while it isn't a glacier, "it does happen the same way. There are 2 ways these holes can open up. One way is the that area of Tuckerman Ravine is a course for water melting off the off the top of the mountain. So a lot of the water drains down through the area of Tuckerman Ravine, and it ends up going down the Cutler River all the way down to the to Pinkham Notch. And so the waterfall creates basically, it drills a giant hole in the snow." 

"We've had people lost in there before, and we've sent waterproof cameras down there to try and look for them. And it goes really, really deep. 30, 40, 50, 60 feet. No bottom. But also, some of it comes from snowcreep."  

"Underneath the that area of the lip, it's ledge-y. It's sort of a cliffy little area. And as the snow melts, it starts to slowly move downhill, and it separates, when the rock below is sort of a terrain change, it tends to open up like this sort of grass-like opening."

"It's really terrifying. We've had people go down there, and we can't send people down there. It's too dangerous because there is rushing water, and it's deep, and it's confiding." 

An earlier post from the Mt. Washington Avalanche Center reported that "these hazards have collectively injured and killed more people on Mount Washington than the avalanche hazard." See below. 

I mentioned that I always thought of Tuckerman Ravine as a place that was more spring-oriented. 

Fongemie said it was a good question, because the trend is changing. He recounted that "20 or 30 years ago when I first started skiing up in the area, not a lot of skiers were getting into a winter snowpack because of the avalanche danger."

"It was poorly understood by professionals and users alike, honestly, 30 years ago, and it's become better understood by everybody. A lot of people are getting avalanche education now for backcountry skiers, and so we're seeing a shift."

Users would avoid avalanche training, by and large, for the winter. But come spring, when the snow stabilized and avalanche concerns were smaller, they would see lots of people coming out. Thousands of people would ski in the spring.

"Now there's a shift. There are a lot of people who are getting avalanche education. They understand the avalanches as a as a hazard, and they can make pretty good decisions in the winter. And so a lot of people are skiing in midwinter. We have an avalanche problem, and they're being careful about it."

"But despite the increased number of skiers, skiers, we're not really seeing a significant increase on number of people that are getting caught and carried and killed by avalanches, so it's shifting. People are getting into a winter snowpack, and I think less so in the spring. We're seeing less numbers in the spring for sure."

When asked when the closure will be removed, Jeff relayed that it depends, but mostly depends on when a person can hike through safely, because "it is a hiking trail in the summertime." 

"We watch it, and as soon as it seems like a person could safely hike through that area, we remove the closure. Typically, it seems like we remove the closure sometime later in June. " 

The last message Jeff had for people looking to enjoy the area was to respect the closure. Jeff said, "we ask people to take it seriously. Sometimes from the surface, these holes don't look particularly significant, but the I think the consequence of falling in a hole is much greater than you would think by looking at them."