Avalanche Forecast

Generally light showers Saturday morning should transition to more widespread shower activity in the afternoon and increase further Saturday night. See the NWAC mountain weather forecast tab for more details. 

Isolated and stubborn pockets of wind slab may be encountered on Saturday near ridges.  

Early season terrain hazards still exist, such as poorly covered rocks, vegetation and creeks, particularly at lower elevations.

Warm, wet weather before Thanksgiving caused wet snow and glide avalanches in the Washington Cascades as well as significant snowpack consolidation. There are no snowpack concerns below the Thanksgiving crust and in general new snow received post-Thanksgiving has reportedly bonded well throughout the range. 

During the week, a series of frontal systems have generally produced light amounts of new snow for the Mt. Hood area at generally moderate snow levels. 

Observations

On Wednesday, a professional ski patroller from Mt Hood Meadows toured to about 6600 feet, finding about 8-12" of recent storm snow well bonded to the crust from last week. Storm snow was deepest on N-E facing terrain and no avalanches were noted. Some rollerballing was noted on steep solar terrain due to direct sun warming.   

On Friday, NWAC observer Laura Green reported no new avalanche or snowpack concerns near and below treeline, with possible isolated pockets of wind slab above treeline. Laura noted that despite moderate winds above treeline, there was not much available snow for transport.