Avalanche forecast

Mt Hood

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
2 · Moderate
Below
2 · Moderate
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Out of date — this forecast expired 6 months ago. You’re viewing past conditions, not the current bulletin.

Highlights

Surface crusts should soften and may break down on steep sunny slopes Friday.  In areas where the snow becomes wet and mushy, stay out of very steep and extreme terrain, and avoid lingering on slopes below overhanging cornices. You may find areas of stiffer wind-drifted snow on the upper mountain where you can still trigger a slab avalanche.  

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    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 Friday with cooler temperatures, wind-textured snow, and continued strong West winds. 

    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

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1–2

    Textured, firmer wind-affected snow won't be hard to see on the upper mountain Friday.  Sunshine, milder temperatures, and a new crust in the upper snowpack have helped limit the likelihood and size of triggering wind slab avalanches.  Continue to use caution when approaching steep open lee slopes.  Use small test slopes to look for shooting cracks and probe for hollow-sounding snow to help you steer clear of suspect terrain.   Also, avoid thin rocky areas below ridgelines, where you could more easily trigger a wind slab avalanche.   

    Triggering a deeper wind slab avalanche is trending towards unlikely, but be mindful of slopes with overhanging cornices.  Cornice failures could trigger a wind slab avalanche on the slopes below. If you're pushing well into the alpine and above NWAC's forecast band,  wind slabs may be easier deeper and easier to trigger.  

    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. 

    (2/26/2026)

    Strong winds on the upper mountain created wind-textured surfaces on the N side of Mt Hood.   

    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.  Similar reports from Thursday found the winds continued to hammer the upper mountain, my recent drifts were shallow, likely capped by the most recent crust.  Lower on the mountain, surface crusts began to soften on sunny aspects. 

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. Last 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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