Avalanche forecast

Mt Hood

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Fri
Alpine
4 · High
Treeline
4 · High
Below
4 · High
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Highlights

Heavy snow, extreme winds, and warming will create widespread and very dangerous natural avalanches. We're particularly concerned about the threat of very large avalanches running from the upper slopes of Mt. Hood to valley bottoms. Avoid all areas where an avalanche may start, run, or stop.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Very Likely
    Size
    1.5–2.5

    Rain on snow up to 7000 ft will destabilize a foot or more of snow that fell Wednesday and Wednesday night prior to the changover to rain. Wet avalanches may take the form of storm slabs moving into wet snow or even perhaps a wet slab running on the 1/4 crust. Regardless of the avalanche flavor, these avalanches will be unmanageable on any open slopes steeper than 35 degrees. Avoid all avalanche terrain.

    (1/4/2022) Loose snow sluffs in steep terrain along Hwy 35 (E aspect, 2600ft). These small avalanches developed a wetter character throughout the day. These types of avalanches may become large on Thursday. Photo: Andrew Kiefer

  • Wind Slabs

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Very Likely
    Size
    2–3.5

    Strong to extreme winds will move tremendous amounts of snowfall. Rain may limit wind slabs up to 7000 ft. However, however an extended storm cycle since 1/2 brings us increasing confidence in the risk that very large wind slabs in the upper elevations of NWAC forecast terrain and more significantly on the upper slopes of Mt. Hood will create unsurvivable avalanches that may run long distances to valley bottoms. Avoid all avalanche terrain.

    (1/1/2022)

    Debris in Clark Canyon from the very large natural avalanche that ran on 12/23/21.  Avalanches like this one will be likely on Thursday.

    Photo: Mt Hood Meadow Ski Patrol

Avalanche Discussion

A storm cycle since 1/2 builds to a climax Wednesday night into Thursday morning. The result will be widespread natural avalanches. This is a great time to avoid all avalanche terrain.

We're particularly concerned about very large avalanches that can release from the upper mountain and run thousands of feet down the main canyons during or after multi-day storm cycles. Keep this on your mind when choosing where to travel even at lower elevations, and don't be lulled into complacency during short lulls in the action.  A very large natural avalanche occurred on 12/23 on the Newton Clark Headwall. Find out more information in this REPORT in the NWAC Avalanche Occurrence Database.  It's a great reminder of the higher uncertainty surrounding deeper layers in the alpine snowpack. 

This event may adversely impact low elevation infrastructure. The snowpack may absorb significant water weight, potentially resulting in roof collapses or even potentially fatal "roofalanches".

Mt. Hood remains in the midst of a massive storm cycle that has dropped around 4 ft of snow since 01/02. You may find a 1-2" crust up to at least near treeline terrain that formed Tuesday night, likely improving avalanche conditions on Wednesday at lower elevations. However, at least 8" of snow has already accumulated on top of this layer with heavy additional snowfall thickening this new snow layer by the time the changeover to rain occurs.

NWAC forecaster Andrew Kiefer traveled the Mitchell Creek area on Tuesday. He found multiple planar interfaces that did not propagate in snowpack tests. The solstice crust is down approximately 7 ft and remains a slight concern as a failure plane for very large upper-elevation avalanches.

 

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