Newton Creek conditions

I'm sure someone has been into Newton Creek this year. What is the snow pack like? Is it anything like what is in Heather Canyon?

Where is Newton Creek?

Where is Newton Creek?

<br><br>One drainage east of Heather Canyon on Mt Hood.<br>

Where is Newton Creek?

<br><br>If I had a dime for every time someone on TAY mentions some obscure peak and/or terrain feature in WA that I have no idea where it is, I'd have almost recovered the amount of money I'm going to lose on my MHM pass this season! (You question, BigSnow, is of course perfectly justifiable, I'm just letting you know you're not alone.)<br><br>I don't have an answer to "OldHouseMan"'s query and I too would like to hear from people who have been in there though I'm not sure there have been many. My hypothesis (that OldHouseMan already knows), is that because the aspect and elevation are so similar to Heather, snow conditions would generally be about the same though there would be more variety of terrain which you might not be able to take advantage of because of the shallow coverage. The biggest issue right now would be the access. From what I can tell, if you went in from HRM, either skinning up the Newton Creek drainage or skinning up Heather and over "Jill's Woods", you'd still have to deal with the creek crossings and various other obstacles of arduousness (the trees at the bottom of the Newton Creek drainage are pretty thick, see this photo looking up the drainage in summer from near HRM). Going in from MHM's main base area and skiing across Heather and up Jill's Woods sounds like an interesting way though it'd be a lot of work for skiing that may currently not be much better than what is in Heather. I was really hoping you'd do it this weekend and report back .<br><br>Regardless of the skiing, getting over there with current snow coverage would certainly be an interesting and educational outing -- one I might not mind doing soon if we don't get more snow. <br>

Well, I thought that there might be others who would also like to know. I also noticed that since there were no replies for some time to the post that maybe a less specific query might cough up some help from others who didn't know the specific area but had been nearby. But I have to admit, that mostly, even though I have lived here since '93 and ski mostly areas that I know, I am always curious to learn about other areas, hence the question. Now all I need to do is get me a copy of Topo! for Oregon.<br><br>Alan

In The Oct 2004 Couloir Magazine there is an article including maps to Newton Creek through Clark Creek off of Mt Hood. The article starts on Page 76 and is the feature of a page called Avy Science. <br>In my (Hopefully) endless pursuit of Avy knowledge I just happened to stumble and read the article today. Pretty interesting article that ends in trouble shooting decisions made while touring in what I would consider a high avalanche day.