Mt Hood

Recent N-NE winds have created some wind slab on a variety of mainly southerly aspects, especially near ridges, so make sure to evaluate wind loaded terrain. Moderate avalanche danger means human triggered avalanches are possible! Watch for wet surface snow conditions on sun exposed slopes during the warmest part of the day

Thursday should continue to be mostly sunny with light winds. Temperatures should remain warm. The main avalanche problem should be any areas of lingering wind slabs formed through Tuesday. More recent northerly winds likely redistributed snow on more southerly aspects above and near treeline. Warm temperatures and sunshine should again cause a chance of small wet loose slides on some steeper southerly facing slopes. good settled powder should persist on shaded slopes and wind protected slopes however. 

A storm system moved through the Northwest on Saturday and Saturday night delivering some much needed snowfall. West winds changed to northwest, with moderate to heavy snow and a cooling trend. Heavy snowfall continued Sunday and Sunday night with NWAC sites on Mt. Hood picking up about 25-30 inches of storm snow through Monday afternoon!

Mt. Hood Meadows pro patrol found cracking and easy releases of soft and generally shallow wind slab due to the rapid wind loading Monday.   

Moderate to strong northwest winds switched to easterly Monday and have persisted through Tuesday. This built new wind slab on westerly aspects. Due to the cold temperatures, soft storm slabs are not expected to be a widespread problem.  The below treeline zone now has enough snow for a loose dry avalanche problem on steeper slopes that are wind sheltered.

Mt Hood patrol observations from Tuesday indicated that new hard wind slabs had formed but in a highly varied pattern. Only a few locally released smaller slabs were noted with explosives. By Tuesday afternoon however, there was evidence of large new natural releases in the Newton-Clark creek drainages.  These start zones are well above the forecast zone near 9000 ft but show evidence of significant wind slab formation from very strong NE winds.  

Winds eased significantly and temperatures warmed Wednesday. This should have allowed for recent slabs to settle and stabilize. 

Warming and sunshine have likely allowed for surface snow melt on southerly facing slopes, where a new sun crust may form.