Avalanche forecast

Mt Hood

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Tue
Alpine
3 · Considerable
Treeline
3 · Considerable
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Out of date — this forecast expired 6 months ago.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

A heavy load of new snow and low-elevation rain will make for a dangerous day around Mt. Hood. While wind-loaded terrain will be most dangerous, consider any steep, open slope as suspect, especially further east in the zone where weak layers exist in the upper snowpack. Let the storm run its course by sticking to simple, sheltered terrain and don't linger under big slopes. 

Avalanche problems

  • Storm Slabs

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

    Heavy snowfall on a warming trend is the perfect recipe for reactive storm slabs. These avalanches could break within the new snow or on mid-storm layers from this past week. 

    As you move around, tweak small test slopes and use snowpack tests to help you gauge slab reactivity. Don’t ignore obvious red flags like shooting cracks, whumphing, or recent avalanches. The easiest way to reduce your risk is to limit travel on steep open slopes and steer around steep convexities in more sheltered areas, especially if they end in a terrain trap. 

    At or just below the snowline, triggering small wet loose avalanche may be possible. Be mindful of the terrain where small wet avalanches could push you into unwanted terrain.

    (2/18/2025)

    An example of a small skier triggered  storm slab on Pea Gravel Ridge. 

     

    Photo: Joe Dellaporta

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Likely
    Size
    2–3

    Heavy, dense wind slabs will be primed for human triggering due to strong winds, heavy accumulation, and rising freezing levels. Some areas of wind-drifted snow may even fail naturally during periods of heavy snowfall. We’ve already seen several large natural and explosive-triggered avalanches in wind-drifted snow this past week ( Avalanche obs 1, Avalanche obs 2), so alpine start zones may be collecting enough drifted snow to produce very large avalanches, especially in areas where slabs may have formed over  a mix of crust and isolated facets. 

    This won’t be the day to thread the needle through wind drifted terrain, just fully avoid it. Use visual clues like blowing snow, textured drifts, and sharp conices to help you identify where slabs are building. Also, be mindful of what's above you and avoid travel under large wind loaded slopes. We may have enough snow that very large avalanches could run far into canyon terrain. Shooting cracks, recent avalanches, or audible whumphs are obvious signs that conditions are dangerous and triggering avalanches are likely on steep, wind-loaded features. 

    (2/17/2025)

    Sharp drifts and blowing snow are obvious signs that slabs are forming near-by.  

    Photo: Joe Dellaporta

Avalanche Discussion

Mt Hood is forecast to receive over 1 inch of snow water equivalent as snow levels rise. This new load will certainly test our current snowpack and make for a heads-up day in the mountains. It's possible we could be push close to high danger, especially as snow levels creep up. Monday will be a good day to dial it back and stick to a simple tour plan while the storm runs its course. 

We’ve talked a lot about potential weak layers this past week. On Sunday, I got good verification that these weak layers do, in fact, exist above the 2/7 crust on the eastern side of Mt Hood near Cloud Cap. In general, I found these weak grains about 1.5-2 ft below the surface, sitting just above the 2/7 crust. This weak layer did show the ability to propagate with snowpack tests and was easy to identify with 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. This is a well-documented weak layer that has transitioned to a persistent slab avalanche problem just to our north. So far, these kinds of observations are few and confined to the eastern part of the Mt. Hood zone, but I wouldn’t fully rule it out at upper elevations or in data-sparse areas. 

 Let us know what you see by submitting an observation here or on the AvyApp

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