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Avalanche Forecast

Archived

Apr 10th, 2018–Apr 11th, 2018

Alpine
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Alpine
Natural avalanches possible, human triggered probable.
Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.
Below Treeline
Natural avalanches unlikely, human triggered possible.

Regions

Mt Hood.

Light snow and moderate winds will create heightened avalanche danger on wind loaded slopes near and above treeline Wednesday. Use visual clues such as fresh cornices, wind drifted pillows and cracks in the snow all indicating that you could trigger a Wind Slab avalanche. Below treeline you may still trigger Loose Wet avalanches or they may be triggered by additional rainfall. Avoid terrain traps if you suspect you could trigger a Loose Wet avalanche. 

Detailed Forecast

Light snow and moderate winds will create heightened avalanche danger on wind loaded slopes near and above treeline Wednesday. Use visual clues such as fresh cornices, wind drifted pillows and cracks in the snow all indicating that you could trigger a Wind Slab avalanche. 

Below treeline you may still trigger Loose Wet avalanches or they may be triggered by additional rainfall. Watch for signs of wet snow conditions such as sluffing, roller-balling and any natural Loose Wet avalanches as signs of an increasing hazard. Avoid terrain traps if you suspect you could trigger a Loose Wet avalanche. 

Snowpack Discussion

A front brought rain and wind to Mt. Hood Tuesday. Snow levels fell to around 5500 ft by Tuesday afternoon. Warm and dry conditions were seen on Monday.

The dry weather followed the strong weekend storm that caused rain Saturday to high elevations followed by cooling and new storm snow totaling 1.5-2 ft in the Mt Hood area above 5000 feet through Sunday afternoon. Wet snow avalanches were seen earlier in the storm and continued at lower elevations through the weekend. New Wind and Storm Slabs developed at higher elevations later in the weekend with fresh cornices developing along ridgelines.   

Moist or wet snow in the upper snowpack should begin to refreeze near and above treeline Wednesday as colder air arrives. 

There are currently no significant layers of concern in the mid or lower snowpack.

Observations

During morning mitigation work Monday, Mt. Hood Meadow Pro-patrol reported that the new snow was not very sensitive to ski triggering. Explosives produced generally shallow soft slabs, with a few that were up to 1-2 ft deep on lee slopes near treeline. 

Problems

Wind Slabs

Wind Slab avalanches are the release of a cohesive layer of snow (a slab) formed by the wind. Wind typically transports snow from the upwind sides of terrain features and deposits snow on the downwind side. Wind slabs are often smooth and rounded and sometimes sound hollow, and can range from soft to hard. Wind slabs that form over a persistent weak layer (surface hoar, depth hoar, or near-surface facets) may be termed Persistent Slabs or may develop into Persistent Slabs.

Loose Wet

Loose Wet avalanches are the release of wet unconsolidated snow or slush. These avalanches typically occur within layers of wet snow near the surface of the snowpack, but they may quickly gouge into lower snowpack layers. Like Loose Dry Avalanches, they start at a point and entrain snow as they move downhill, forming a fan-shaped avalanche. Other names for loose-wet avalanches include point-release avalanches or sluffs. Loose Wet avalanches can trigger slab avalanches that break into deeper snow layers.