Avalanche forecast for this weekend 5/15

Upon checking out the forecast for this weekend I was surprised to note that the Avalanche Center put out a special avalanche statement for considerable hazard this weekend.

From the postings from last week or so, it appeared that the mountains may have been less traveled because of the abundance of new snow and maybe backcountry travelers were giving the snowpack some time to settle before attacking once again.

In any case, all may not have settled just yet and I wanted to post what I saw in case people assumed they would find what more typically would be a stable spring snowpack.

Alan

Saw the report earlier and noticed this line in it

Another indicator of increasingly wet and rotten snow conditions stems from a road building operation on a north exposure around the 4000 ft level near Alpental that had to be terminated prematurely on Tuesday when the snowcat was unable to gain traction in the very wet, slushy snowpack

Anyone know what road they are working on up there? I won't admit to being paranoid but am curious.

I just saw that and was a little surprised also.  We were planning a trip for this weekend...the forecast in the North Oregon Cascades has been calling for freezing levels around 8,000 feet for 3 consecutive days and clear to partly cloudy skies, making me think it would be fairly stable conditions by the weekend.  But I haven't been out on the snowpack recently so it sounds like it may be a little too early to count on good consolidation.

Here is a trip report from a splitboarder at Alpental near the Slot Couloir that let loose a pretty decent wet slide this week:

splitboard.com/talk/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=8877

It's nice that they post an update for that report.
There was great corn skiing last week, but the snowlevels were pretty low.
I doubt there will be a deep enough freeze overnight to give the snowpack a thorough freezing of the mush this weekend.
Stay safe, Some slides don't move to fast at first, but can step down and those wet slides carry a lot of force.

Was out in Teanaway area Wednesday visiting Judy and Earl. By mid morning it started to get very mushy. Some small wet slabs slid and saw some cornice breaks off the south aspect of the west Earl ridge in early pm. Nothing big but lots of potential there. They missed most of the storm of last week but still very unconsolidated on the east slopes.

I would say go high and be careful for awhile.