Mt Hood

Cloudy skies should keep surfaces frozen and avalanche concerns to a minimum. Instead, icy slopes will be your greatest hazard. Make sure you have the tools, techniques, and time to manage these slippery conditions.

Mostly clear skies Wednesday night should allow any snow that softened during the day to freeze solid, even if temperatures remain warm. Increasing clouds and slightly stronger winds on Thursday will hamper the sun’s efforts to soften the snow. Instead, you should be left with mostly firm surfaces, a “locked up” snowpack, and generally safe avalanche conditions. 

The greatest hazard will likely be icy slopes and “slide for life” conditions where a simple slip can quickly turn into an uncontrolled fall. You may want extra traction (crampons) for the ice and a way to arrest a fall (ice axe). Of course, these tools only work if you know how to properly assess conditions and use them. Elsewhere, scoured slopes, chalky snow, frozen blocks, and irregular surfaces make travel challenging. Plan for extra time to manage the variety of surface conditions. 

At the higher elevations, you might find a small isolated wind slab. Indeed, on Tuesday Mt Hood Climbing Rangers photographed blowing snow along exposed ridges. What’s left to blow around? Hard to say, but if you’re going to find an avalanche, this is probably it. The blowing snow also highlights the potential unknown of the upper mountain above our forecast area (8500ft). Don’t assume the low danger applies to the top of the peak. 

Even though we don’t have avalanche concerns down in the snowpack, weak snow has been reported at and near the surface. Surface hoar and facets are common, particularly at lower elevations and on shadier aspects. In some locations, a weakening crust may cap these sugary grains. It's worth paying attention to how these weak surfaces change as we twiddle our thumbs and anticipate the next storm. 

NWAC forecasters traveled in the White River Canyon area on Wednesday. They reported soft “spring” snow on southerly slopes thanks to the plentiful sunshine, warm temperatures, and light winds. Meanwhile, shady aspects remained cold and firm. Given the current conditions, they noted, “You can’t go wrong packing the sharps (ice axe, crampons, etc.) kit with how firm it is in the mornings.”