New Hampshire, Mount Washington, Huntington Ravine. On March 17 Christopher MacRae (24) and Don Jensen (18) were involved in an avalanche in Damnation Gully. The background: a rope of two (from the Harvard Mountaineering Club) climbed North Gulley, and traversed across to Damnation below the second ice-pitch; this had been climbed (using rock-piton belay), and about three quarters of the gulley ascended (using two sling-belays to rocks and thereafter ice-ax belays). Conditions: There was a considerable wind above, but this was blowing over the gulley; while there had been a certain amount of recent snow, this did not appear to affect Damnation till about 200 feet above the second ice- pitch; up to about this point there was a crust varying in hardness (whether a previous snowslip had stripped the loose snow or because the wind had done so, is not certain); above this point, there were about two to three inches of powder snow on top. (While the rope was climbing the second ice-pitch, a short but sharp burst of hail fell.). The avalanche started above the leader, out of sight (the visibility by this time was minimal because of cloud); at first it consisted only of surface snow; but when this had built up to waist height, the underlying crust was also swept away. Where the line of break occurred was impossible to say in the circumstances, and it is not absolutely certain from the second man’s evidence whether or not the crust was stripped as far as the point at which he was (about forty feet below the leader). It does seem more than likely that the whole width of the gully went, since the leader was right against the wall. Both the leader (MacRae) and the second were swept down the gulley. Jensen suffered a fractured shoulder blade. Conclusion: The leader had taken into account the possibility of a surface snowslip (as the avalanche started out by being); and had there been no more than this, the situation might have been worrying but not too dangerous. It appears that the snow-crust in Damnation Gulley is not always to be trusted, and for the upper third of the climb something more solid than an ice-ax belay is recommended.

Source: Christopher MacRae, Appalachia, 34, 128-129, 1962.