Avalanche forecast

Mt Hood

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Avalanche danger

Sat
Alpine
2 · Moderate
Treeline
1 · Low
Below
1 · Low
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Highlights

You can trigger a small wet avalanche at any elevation, but fresh snowfall will create a small shedding cycle above treeline. Adjust your aspect and choose lower-angle terrain if you see rollerballs forming. Even a small avalanche can be consequential above creekbeds, cliffs, or rocky terrain.

Avalanche problems

  • Loose Wet

    • Alpine
    • Treeline
    • Below treeline
    Likelihood
    Possible
    Size
    1

    You may encounter two varieties of wet loose avalanches on Friday: (1) At upper elevations, several inches of dry snow fell and drifted more deeply in places. Friday's warming temperatures and increasing sunshine will create rollerballs and a cycle of shallow avalanches as the sun moves around the dial. These small avalanches will be most consequential where snow has accumulated more deeply and above terrain traps. (2) Near and below the treeline, saturated upper snowpacks will be soft and slushy once the crusts break down. Note this transition. Once it occurs, you can trigger a small avalanche on a slope steeper than 35 degrees. 

    Example: Wet loose avalanches.

    Photo: Public Observation

Avalanche Discussion

It looks like April in Mt. Hood terrain as glide cracks open up and pull away from rocky outcrops. Following an expected overnight freeze Thursday night, a return to unseasonably mild January weather will renew the wet avalanche problems. In addition to small wet loose avalanches, anticipate the potential for isolated glide avalanches. Note the locations of existing large open cracks and limit your time below similar terrain features and anywhere smooth bedrock exists underneath the snowpack. Glide avalanches take the entire snowpack with them and with over 80" of snow on the ground, they could be quite large. Sagging cornices that have not yet failed may do so. Limit your time on or below these slopes as well.

Mt. Hood picked up 1.5-1.75" of water equivalent in the last 24 hours; most of that water fell as rain. Our highest observations on Thursday were from 6000 ft at Mt. Hood meadows where patrol noted rain transitioned to a mix of freezing rain and snow during the day. We suspect the rain/snow line extended up to at least 7000 ft during peak warming Wednesday night. MHM Pro Patrol also noted no natural wet avalanche activity, but boot penetration was 12-18". Glide cracks are widespread in the terrain, but so far glide avalanches have been rare. Rain rills texture the landscape. Temperatures have predominantly been above freezing over the last 10 days at Mt. Hood and the snowpack seems well set up to handle more mild temperatures.

If you make it to cold northerly aspects above the recent rain/snow line, you may encounter small wind slabs that you can trigger on wind-loaded slopes steeper than 35 degrees.

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