Avalanche Forecast

New snow by Monday morning at Mt Hood may be up to a foot or so. Temperatures will be cooler by Monday morning.

Southwest winds aloft should decrease on Monday. Moderate snow showers at Mt Hood should decrease on Monday with further cooling.

If you travel into the back country at Mt Hood Monday watch for new wind slab mainly on northwest to southeast slopes mainly in the near and above treeline. Previous wind slab may linger on other slope aspects also mainly in the near and above treeline. Watch for firmer wind transported snow.

New storm slab is possible Monday on sheltered slopes where there was more than several inches of rapidly accumulating snowfall.

New wind and storm slab layers should be more stable by the end of the day on Monday.

Remember that recently formed surface hoar and surface faceted snow has been seen lately in the Cascades in the below treeline. It will be a good plan to avoid slopes above terrain traps in the below treeline where these weak layers may have been buried by new snow.

Weather and Snowpack

A cold dry Arctic air mass was over the Northwest last week. The main weather event last week was a day or so of nuclear east winds on Wednesday that went on a powder wrecking rampage, scouring windward slopes, re-distributing it to lee slopes and building sastrugi in other areas.

Reports indicate the winds eliminated most of the faceted surface snow and surface hoar that formed in the near and above treeline during the cold weather. But these weak surface crystals are still reported in the Cascades below treeline.

A warm front is moving south to north over the Northwest on Sunday eroding and replacing the Arctic air mass and causing warmer temperatures. Southeast winds aloft on Sunday will shift to southwest by late Sunday and Monday.

Recent Observations

No reports were received on Wednesday and fierce winds that kept the ski areas from running most of their lifts also likely prevented anyone from venturing into the near or above treeline on Mt. Hood. 

NWAC pro-observer Laura Green was at the Mt Hood Meadows Ski Area on Thursday following some of the strongest winds experienced on Mt Hood for a very long time. She found a mix of wind sculpted conditions, ranging from deep hard slabs, likely 1-2 meters or more in depth as well as scoured slopes to crust layers, sastrugi, and a thin melt-freeze sun crust on many south aspects. These deep slabs are unlikely to be triggered by a solo traveler, however, more shallow wind slabs may be a different story. Settled and stable powder was found on wind sheltered terrain, where skiing conditions remained very nice.

Laura was out again on Friday in the Mitchell/Iron Creek area in the 4200-6000 foot range and found hard slab drifts from the high wind event of 1/4 even below treeline, and in reverse of what is usually present due to the east winds. She reported lots of variation in surfaces - wind hardened snow, sastrugi, bumpy ice, settled powder and tree debris. But no signs of instability were observed.