Lawinenlagebericht

Mt Hood

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Lawinengefahr

Fri
Hochgebirge
2 · Mässig
Waldgrenze
2 · Mässig
Unterhalb
2 · Mässig
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Kernpunkte

Move away from overhead hazard and steep sunny slopes if you find the snow becoming wet and mushy.  It will be harder to trigger a deeper slab avalanche at upper elevations, but don't hang out on lee slopes with large overhanging cornices. If you're traveling to the N-E side of the mountain, be prepared to assess a shallower and potentially trickier snowpack. 

Lawinenprobleme

  • Loose Wet

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–2

    The sun will be out once again along with slightly warmer temperatures.  First, the sun will have to break down a crust, but once it does, we can start to think about wet loose avalanches on steep sunny slopes.  Sunny slopes may not soften much at upper elevations on Thursday with cooler temperatures and a stiff W wind. 

    Rollerballs, pinwheels, and wet sluffs fanning out below your feet or machine are obvious clues the snow surface is becoming wet and weak. In some areas, these wet loose avalanches could grow powerful and grow large, given the amount of recent snow Mt Hood has received.   Avoid travel above or below terrain traps where wet loose avalanches may release.  You can always move to shadier aspects without exposure as the warming commences.   Give cornices a large berth when travelling along ridgelines.  

    (2/24/2026)

    Rollerballs shedding above rocks on an E aspects @ 5600' near Timberline.  

    Look for more snow to shed near and below rocks and cliffs as the sun returns and temperatures rise slightly on Thursday.

    Photo: Ryan Matz

  • Wind Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Possible
    Größe
    1–2

    The likelihood of triggering older wind slab avalanches continues to decrease with time and milder temperatures.  A new surface crust will also help limit the likelihood of triggering an avalanche on lee slopes.  For deeper, older slabs, avoid lee slopes with large overhanging cornices; cornice fall could be a right-sized large trigger to unleash a deeper more powerful slab avalanche.  Be mindful of parties traveling along ridgelines above you; cornices often break back further than we think.  Also, avoid thin rocky areas below ridgelines, where you could more easily trigger a wind slab avalanche. 

    If you're at higher elevations and find freshly drifted snow, use caution on steep open slopes where you could trigger a shallower wind slab avalanche.  For these avalanches you can test small test slopes, use snowpack tests, and pay attention to red flags as you travel.   

    As mentioned below, the snowpack on the N-E side of the mountain may harbor weak snow layers in the upper snowpack that make triggering a large surprising avalanche possible.   Take a more conservative approach if travelling in these areas where we have less recent information. 

    (2/25/2026)

    Another look at the large natural avalanche in Upper White River that likely ran on 2/24.

    Large, older wind slabs should be harder to trigger on Thursday, but a large trigger like cornice fail could tip the scales.   

    HS-N-R3-D2.6-U @ SE aspect, 7000 ft

    Photo: Joe Dellaporta

Avalanche Discussion

A multi-day storm event brought 2-3' of snow from Sunday evening through Tuesday morning along with plenty of wind.   Unfortunately, the system ended up on a warm whimper on Tuesday, with rain and mist pushing into the upper mountain.  Visibility cleared on Wednesday under sunny skies, showing several small to large natural slab avalanches at upper elevations (D2.5 in the gallery below) that likely ran during the heaviest loading on Monday or Tuesday.   In the alpine, our friends at the USGS reported a seismic signal on the north side of Mt. Hood sometime on Monday that may have been the large natural avalanche crown later observed on the Sunshine Headwall.

Backcountry travelers on the south side of Hood found a new rain crust that extended from mid-elevations to upper elevations, and became thinner above 9000'.   Only shallow pockets of freshly wind-drifted snow were observed above the new surface crust.  

If you're traveling to the north or east side of the mountain, continue to travel  more cautiously where less is known about the weaker/shallower snowpack.  A well-documented weak layer/crust interface has become a persistent slab avalanche problem just to our north, with scary avalanches triggered daily in the West South zone this week. On Sunday, forecaster Joe Dellaporta found that this weak layer exists in eastern locations of Mt Hood, including near Tilly Jane and Cloud Cap (observation here). This weak layer showed the ability to propagate during snowpack tests and was easy to identify using hand hardness profiles. While this layer was easy to identify here, it wasn't as obvious on the south side of the mountain, where the snowpack was generally deeper and stronger over this crust. 

The mountain is looking much more winter-like after the last few storms.  That said, continue to use caution at lower elevations and on thin-coverage aspects.  Allow extra time for stream crossings,  open holes in the snow,  etc in areas with a thin snowpack. 

 Let us know what you see by submitting an observation here or on the AvyApp

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