Bollettino valanghe

Mt Hood

Northwest Avalanche Center
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Pericolo valanghe

Sun
Alta quota
1 · Debole
Limite del bosco
1 · Debole
Sotto il limite
1 · Debole
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In sintesi

The snowpack on Mt Hood is generally stable, and avalanches are unlikely in most areas. With sunny, spring-like weather Saturday, pay attention as snow surfaces thaw throughout the day. You may be able to trigger small wet avalanches on the steepest sun-exposed slopes.

Problemi valanghivi

  • Loose Wet

    • Alta quota
    • Limite del bosco
    • Sotto il limite del bosco
    Probabilità
    Unlikely
    Dimensione
    1

    Watch for changing conditions on southerly slopes as it warms up on Saturday. Steer around large terrain features greater than 35 degrees where you find wet unconsolidated snow surfaces. Identify terrain traps like gullies, narrow canyons, and cliffs where even a small avalanche could be consequential. Following several days of warm temperatures and rain, the lower elevation snowpack has mostly adjusted to being wet. Slopes above 6000ft hold 1-2in of recent snow that could slide on an underlying crust when it warms up. If you see rollerballs, pinwheels, or find yourself sinking more than 6in deep into slushy wet snow, move to shady slopes or lower angle terrain.

    Example photo of small rollerballs. This is often a precursor to wet loose avalanches.

Avalanche Discussion

The weather and avalanche conditions on Mt Hood have been a rollercoaster ride so far in 2022. The first week of January brought 5-7ft of cold snowfall and a widespread natural avalanche cycle January 6-7. This past week was a major pattern change with warming temperatures and a mix of rain and high elevation snow. Sunny, spring-like conditions are on tap for the upcoming weekend.

How hard snow surfaces freeze overnight, and how strong the sun shines will drive any lingering wet loose avalanche issues. Even with the recent warm temperatures, snow surfaces have been firm and frozen in the mornings. Icy conditions can be found in many places above treeline, and frozen rain rills make for quite a bumpy ride below 6000ft. On Friday, east and south aspects below 7000ft began to soften around 11am. There is good confidence the skies will be clear Saturday, so pay attention to changing conditions on sun-exposed slopes. If you venture high into the alpine, beware of falling rime ice during the heat of the day. 

The most notable event from the January 6-7 avalanche cycle was a very large natural on the upper Newton Clark Glacier. The crown was easily 10ft deep in places and debris ran 4500ft down into Newton Canyon. Other impressive natural avalanches from the cycle occurred on the Eliot Glacier Headwall as well (see photo below). The recent mild weather has allowed the snowpack to gain strength and we don't expect further very large avalanche activity from the upper mountain at this time. 

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