Lawinenlagebericht

Mt Hood

Northwest Avalanche Center
Auf der Karte ansehen

Lawinengefahr

Sun
Hochgebirge
4 · Gross
Waldgrenze
4 · Gross
Unterhalb
3 · Erheblich
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Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 3 years ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

Heavy precipitation and extreme wind speeds will create very dangerous avalanche conditions on Saturday. Avoid all slopes greater than 35 degrees, especially in wind-loaded areas. Early season conditions still exist and can exacerbate the consequence of even a small avalanche.

Lawinenprobleme

  • Storm Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Very Likely
    Größe
    1–2

    New snow will continue to stack up, keeping slabs fresh and reactive to your weight on Saturday. We're expecting a brief spike in freezing levels during the morning hours, which may cause slabs to form upside down. And with the strong to extreme wind speeds, you will undoubtedly find the largest and deadliest slabs on wind-loaded slopes at middle and upper elevations. 

    With all that said, Saturday will be a good day to keep your terrain selection simple. Any slopes above 35 degrees should be considered suspect. As you travel, use hand pits to look for hard over soft layering or stomp on small, inconsequential test slopes to gauge how sensitive the new snow is. 

    Saturday will be a good day to steer clear and avoid traveling on or under slopes greater than 35 degrees.  

    (12/1/2023)

    Shooting cracks like this are a clear indicator that you found an unstable slab.  This was a shooting crack observed on the morning of Friday, December 1st. 

    Photo: Joe Dellaporta

Avalanche Discussion

The Mt Hood zone will be in for a wild ride these next few days. Precipitation will continue to fall, winds will blow strong, and temperatures will rise. All of this will result in a very dangerous weekend to be traveling on or around Mt Hood. 

On Friday morning, my partner and I ventured up to Timberline to start tracking the new snow. We didn't have to go far to find obvious signs of instability. From the parking lot, strong west winds blasted us, and test slopes reliably produced shooting cracks in wind-drifted snow. Seeing these obvious red flags kept us off of nearby steep slopes. Another observer in the Timberline area also reported shooting cracks and triggered small slabs in wind-drifted snow. You can check out their full observation here. 

Leading up to this storm, upper-elevation slopes and leeward aspects at mid-elevations were the only places that held snow. Many lower-elevation slopes held little to no snow. While less likely, you may find isolated pockets of weak snow (facets or surface hoar) lingering on mid and upper-elevation shaded slopes. 

Despite all the new snow, low tide conditions still exist across much of the zone. Don't let an early season injury be the end of your season. So if you venture out, be mindful of shallowly buried hazards such as trees, rocks, and creeks. 

If you get out, let us know what you see by submitting an observation!

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