On Thursday, October 6th, Adam Bidwell, Brent Underkoffler, Jimmy Riopel, and Spencey Ralston were skiing on New Hampshire’s Mount Washington when a loose snow avalanche struck the party, capturing one skier and carrying a second skier’s ski.
According to the Field Observation made on the Mount Washington Avalanche Center website, the party of four had collected at the base of Tuckerman Ravine before splitting into two groups of two, party A heading to Chute and party B going toward Chute, North variation. Party A set a kick-turn track climbers right of the slide path, eventually being forced to traverse the slide path to access a sheltered zone beneath the buttress between Chute and Chute South.
While traversing, a loose snow avalanche scoured the start zone, depositing debris in the runout zone above chute, going through the funnel, and hitting the lead skier. He was carried approximately 30 meters downslope, while the second skier in party A, who was at the edge of the slide, had his ski taken by the avalanche.
Party B’s lead skier observed the slide as it exited the Chute funnel and spread to the to the base of the Tuckerman icefall. The runout zone had been scoured to the base rock and showed an observable crown depth greater than 30cm while the avalanche debris reached more than 3 meters deep. Fortunately nobody was injured in the slide and no gear was damaged.
The four individuals in this incident are all highly experienced skiers, climbers, and guides, having volunteered on rescues in this terrain. While the excursion was certainly to ski, part of its purpose was to assess conditions and collect observations for sharing.
