Mt Hood

Avalanche conditions will remain generally safe around Mt. Hood for one more day. Any new snowfall should be light, so focus your attention on newly forming shallow wind slabs in terrain where a small avalanche could be consequential. Refrozen, slide-for-life surfaces may remain your greatest hazard. Look for a more significant uptick in avalanche danger on Wednesday. 

Snow showers may bring light accumulations to Mt. Hood on Tuesday, but not enough to raise danger above Low. Even so, a bit of new snow combined with wind could form shallow slabs in alpine terrain. Keep this in mind in bigger terrain, where even a small avalanche could have serious consequences.

The more significant hazard remains firm, unforgiving surfaces across the volcano. If you’re heading into steep terrain, bring crampons, an ice axe, a helmet, and the skills to travel on hard snow. Cloud cover may limit softening on sun-exposed slopes, making corn hunting tricky. If you’re on skis or a splitboard, be deliberate about your line and consider the consequences of a fall—long, sliding falls on Cascade volcanoes are dangerous and have been deadly over the years.

The snowpack has endured a beating and shrunk immensely over the past weeks. Expect a plethora of travel hazards at lower and middle elevations due to historically low snow. 

Are you heading out?  Let us know what you see by submitting an observation here or on the AvyApp.