West Slopes South

Even if steep southerly slopes and lower elevations soften a bit on Saturday, it shouldn’t create much in the way of wet avalanche hazards. However, you might find a wide variety of snow conditions depending on aspect, elevation, and even slope that make travel more adventurous.

Unseasonably mild condiitons continue to shape the snowpack in the West South. On Saturday, several weather factors will battle it out to control of the snow surface. High thin clouds, a low sun angle, short days, and moderate westerly winds will help frozen slopes stay frozen. All the while, warm temperatures will try their best to soften any firm surface. We think the former will win and any wet avalanche concerns will be minimal. 

Warming will be the greatest in steep, rocky, sheltered, southerly terrain and at lower elevations. These are the places where you’re most likely to encounter an isolated wet loose avalanche. With so many obstacles to hit, even a tiny slide could turn nasty quickly. 

The big question mark continues to be the Upper Elevations. On Friday, avalanche professionals in the Crystal area reported softer snow, sometimes capped by a very thin crust, on shaded slopes above ~6000ft. Easterly winds also transported snow along exposed ridges. Conversely, further south on Mt Hood very firm icy conditions were reported. 

If you use the nice weather to head to higher terrain (and even above our forecast area: 8000ft), you could encounter a wide variety of conditions. This could include a few isolated pockets of wind-drifted snow along exposed ridges and in the tops of chutes. Strong alpine winds are expected Saturday; this could strip any remaining soft snow and leave icy slopes behind. 

Lower in the terrain, things aren’t any more consistent. “Variable” is often the word of choice. Breakable crusts, wet punchy snow, icy slopes, and irregular rain runnels make travel slightly less predictable. Then there are the things you can hit or fall into: frozen avalanche debris, flowing creeks, open holes, downed logs, exposed rocks, shrubs, etc. There’s a lot to complicate even simple travel routes. Take it slow and give yourself some extra time to deal with this laundry list of non-avalanche issues.