South Side:Timberline

I found slick, rimed, refrozen surfaces across much of the terrain on the south side. A few crowns on the upper mountain serve as a reminder that the its still winter on the upper mountain despite the warm, calm conditions at the trailhead. The long sliding fall hazard is likely the greatest hazard right now. 

The snowpack on Mt Hood is slowly transitioning from winter to spring.

From the trailhead, I observed a refrozen, supportable snowpack that made travel easy and fast in the early morning. However, this crust broke down as the day heated up. Solar aspects were mushy and unsupportive by 11 a.m.

Once above 6500 ft, rime ice became more prevalent across the terrain, making travel conditions slick. I enjoyed having the ski crampons for these sections.

Despite the firm surfaces lower down, I still observed a few natural D1 soft slabs in wind-loaded upper mountain terrain. These slabs likely released 1-2 days ago. While small, these slabs serve as a reminder that unstable pockets of wind-drifted snow may still exist on shaded aspects or higher up on the mountain.  

It's not quite a glorious corn cycle yet, so continue to use caution in upper-elevation wind-loaded terrain and watch for wet avalanches as the sun melts the surface!