In this period, the temperatures are relatively mild but the natural snowpack — which averages up to 55 feet (17 m) in a typical winter — is still adequate to ski most seasons.

The record-setting high winds atop Mount Washington scour a massive amount of snow from the surrounding highlands and drop it here or in the adjacent Huntington Ravine.

Skiing is not limited to this time, but the avalanche danger, peaking from late December to early March, requires special training and experience to assess and navigate the ravine safely during the winter.

Still farther to the right are the Center Gullies, which includes "The Icefall", which is 55 degrees, and requires skiers to go off cliffs as tall as 25 feet (7.6 m).

Two years after the headwall was first run on April 11, 1931, by Dartmouth men John Carleton and Charles N. Proctor, the Ski Club Hochgebirge proposed a 4.2-mile (6.8 km) summit-to-base race on Mt.

The following year's race was won by Dick Durrance, who beat Phillips' record and completed the course in 12 minutes, 35 seconds.

In the late winter of 1939, several veteran skiers proposed a repeat Inferno top-to-bottom race due to the ravine's deep snowpack.

The 1939 American Inferno is remembered for Toni Matt's split-second decision to ski a straight line from the crest of the headwall down through the bowl's full run.

[8] A shortened course was run in the spring of 1952 (because of a cloud-shrouded summit) that started just above the lip of the headwall, and was won by Dartmouth's Bill Beck.