Avalanche Forecast

Continued mild temperatures with lowering clouds and increasing light rain and high elevation snow are expected on Thursday.

Lingering wind slabs should continue to be far less sensitive to triggering on Wednesday and confined to higher terrain. Continue to watch for areas of recently wind transported snow such as fresh cornices, snow drifts, and uneven snow surfaces. Identify and avoid locations where recent wind loading occurred.

Wind slabs can be deceptively difficult to manage in the terrain. Take a moment and read our recent blog post by NWAC Pro Observer Jeremy Allyn on wind slabs.

In some areas, firm surface crusts will make for difficult travel conditions so be prepared to self-arrest and think about the sliding hazard before crossing steep slopes.  

Despite all this new snow, early season hazards still exist. Many creek beds have still not filled in for the winter.

Mild weather seen Sunday through Wednesday has allowed lingering wind slabs to gain strength. A variety of snow surfaces exist including wind scoured snow, crusts, and likely stubborn to unreactive wind slabs. No recent avalanche activity has been observed.

A variety of rain and freezing rain crusts are sandwiched  in the upper snowpack depending on elevation. Current observations do not suggest these layers to be reactive.

Observations

Laura Green was in the Mt. Hood Meadows area on Thursday and reports slide for life conditions and very thin, unreactive wind deposits on non-solar slopes. On solar slopes, corn formed from the base to 7,300 ft. Stability tests on a SSE aspect at 6100 feet showed no reactive layers.