Lawinenlagebericht

Mt Hood

Northwest Avalanche Center
Auf der Karte ansehen

Lawinengefahr

Fri
Hochgebirge
3 · Erheblich
Waldgrenze
3 · Erheblich
Unterhalb
3 · Erheblich
Open full map
Veraltet — dieser Lagebericht ist 2 years ago abgelaufen. Du siehst vergangene Verhältnisse, nicht den aktuellen Bericht.

Kernpunkte

The first day of significant warming will bring dangerous avalanche conditions to the Mt Hood zone. While you travel, look for and avoid steep wind-loaded features, and consider limiting the time you spend under large slopes during the heat of the day. Move to shadier locations or less steep terrain once you notice wet, sloppy snow. 

Lawinenprobleme

  • Wind Slabs

    • Hochgebirge
    • Waldgrenze
    • Unterhalb der Waldgrenze
    Wahrscheinlichkeit
    Likely
    Größe
    1.5–2.5

    A significant loading event on Wednesday morning left large, dense slabs of wind-drifted snow on leeward aspects (NE-E-SE) above 6000ft . These hard slabs could break in surprising ways if triggered. Due to recent radical wind speeds, don't be surprised if you find these slabs further downslope than usual. To complicate matters, the wind direction has shifted easterly, which may redistribute available snow and build shallow, fresh slabs on unusual aspects like the west. 

    You'll want to use visual clues like blowing snow, textured surfaces, and sharp drifts and cornices to help you identify wind-loaded features. These slabs will often appear rounded or pillow-like. Shooting cracks under your feet or skis are obvious clues you found an unstable slab.

    (3/13/2024)

    Visual  clues help highlight where wind slabs may occur.

    Photo: Dallas Glass

  • Loose Wet

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

    The warming temperatures will be a shock to dry snow surfaces on Thursday. As the day progresses, you'll likely see rollerballs, pinwheels, and wet loose avalanches on steep sunny slopes. You may even witness signs of warming on shadier slopes later in the afternoon as the warming intensifies. Pay attention to snow shedding off trees, rollerballs/pinwheels initiating, and sticky surfaces to help you pinpoint what slopes are heating up. Move to shadier aspects once you notice these signs of warming. 

    Photo: Joe Dellaporta

    Move to shadier slopes once you notice signs like this. 

Avalanche Discussion

The Cascades are heading into a stretch of very warm sunny weather. It will be the first big, spring-like warming event of the year, with high temperatures in the 50's and freezing levels over 10,000'. Very warm conditions through the weekend could produce significant slab and loose snow avalanches. 

As with any warming event, there is a high level of uncertainty as to where, when, or even if this scale of avalanche activity will occur. On the other hand, big natural avalanches aren't really the kinds of things that should be taken lightly. It's worth noting that smaller wet loose or wind slab avalanches, cornice falls, or snow shedding from cliffs can provide the trigger needed to pull out a very large avalanche. When planning for the weekend, consider that this is one of the times when an 'improbable' avalanche might actually occur.

On Wednesday, Mt Hood picked up another 12 inches of new snow, which was accompanied by very strong west winds. This intense wind event left a patchwork of surfaces and slabs in exposed terrain. The Mt Hood Meadows Pro Patrol reported triggering large hard slab avalanches in wind-loaded terrain during avalanche reduction work. Some of these avalanches broke up to 4-5 ft deep and propagated over 200 ft. 

You can add to the avalanche forecast. Submit your observation here.

 

Abgedeckte Regionen