Hood Conditions?

[crazy_t]

Has anyone been up on Hood the last few days? A friend is heading out tommorrow (1-13) and I told her I'd check here for any recent first-hand reports of snow and avy hazard. She's going up the standard route. I appreciate it!

Edited January 12, 2007 by crazy_t

[ptavv]

I was up to about 7k feet yesterday skiing. I imagine it's about the same all the way up to the snow line from the last storm before this one (10k feet or so I think it turned out to be?).

 

Here's my assessment (from an email I sent some buddies) as a backcountry skier:

It's 6-8" of super light snow on top of a thick (2-4") raincrust, with dense consolidated snow underneath the crust. Didn't dig too much deeper since the crust is super bomb proof, slides will be on top of it, it seems unlikely that it is going to slide due to skier/climber activity (IMHO of course).

 

The last snow event (that dropped the 6-8") came with pretty light winds, so there's the usual loading on lee slopes, but nothing extreme. As long as you're not above cliff bands or anything else, you ought to be alright.

 

The snow on top didn't seem like it slabbed up on the few aspects I skied. That said, if you're skiing, manage your slough carefully since it doesn't take much to push this snow off the rain crust.

[crazy_t]

Thanks for the comprehensive report! I will pass it on.

[crazy_t]

Did anyone happen to get up today (friday)? (aka a small bump)