Mt Hood

Avalanches will be unlikely Tuesday as cooling temperatures freeze and stabilize the snowpack. Prepare for slick and icy travel, increasing clouds and winds, and very light snow accumulations at the highest elevations by late afternoon.

Freezing levels look to free-fall from 8000ft to 3500ft by Wednesday morning. The strong cooling trend will freeze snow surfaces and further stabilize the consolidated, spring-like snowpack on Mt Hood. Cloudy skies and a chance for light precipitation through Wednesday night may allow 1-2in of new snow to accumulate at the highest elevations. Strong westerly winds may blow fresh snow into shallow and isolated drifts, but any new snow and wind loading doesn't look significant enough to create an avalanche problem. It will take more to fill in the existing rough snow surfaces, and the most significant result of the light snow accumulations may be a fresh crop of rollerballs when the sun comes out Thursday.

Observers on Tuesday enjoyed a gorgeous spring day with corn snow riding conditions. Snow surfaces froze near and above treeline Monday night and thawed mid-morning on sunny slopes. Areas below treeline haven't experienced a solid freeze in several days and remained unconsolidated and slushy with boot penetration up to 6in. No new avalanches have been reported since 3/24, and the last wet loose slides were stubborn to triggers and not entraining much snow or running far downslope. 

The snowpack endured a beating over the past week of warming, rain, and sun. Areas below 5000ft were hit particularly hard, with a 12-18in loss in the overall height of snow. Many exposed ridgelines and southerly slopes melted out, vegetation started to poke through the snowpack below treeline, and creeks opened up. Fortunately, areas near and above treeline have been somewhat resilient, and the snowpack is pretty well adjusted after several melt-freeze cycles and a prolonged thaw.