Hood Conditions this week...

Fairly new to the PNW, trying to calibrate myself to conditions. We bagged our hood ski attempt (s. side) two (?) weeks ago during the extreme heat following the late April dump of several feet of snow. Were thinking about a similar attempt mid-week this week, but I see that temps are back on their way up. NWAC / NWS don't presently have alerts out like they did two weeks ago. However, free air freezing levels look to be very high with warm overnight temperatures. I know that people climb / ski hood well into summer and its warm temperatures, so I am just trying to evaluate the wisdom of an attempt this coming week. Any comments would be welcomed.

Well there was a good amount of fresh at the end of last week, especially up high. By Saturday afternoon hood was seeing solar radiation, and did on Sunday as well. My person gut feeling would be that by the middle to end of this week anything that was iffy should have gone-the sun is intense at this point in the year and is working the snow good.

That being said you're probably not doing any favors if you're going up/down in the solar reflecting oven of the south side at 3 in the afternoon on these hot days. Summit early (sunrise?), maybe hang out at the hogsback till things soften up a bit (10-11am? depends on FZ levels/wind etc) and get down below crater rock before things get too hot. Thats what I'd tentatively plan if I was able to climb this week. Some of the hot days we can get in May I know I've left at around 11pm and topped out at 4:45-5 while the sun was rising over the columbia. If its really high freezing level the snow can be soft up high so you can ski in pretty early--only takes an hour or so of the sun on it to be serviceable.

Observational info taking all precedence of course.

Sometimes the best bets are the "transition" days at the end of a warm spell. Friday might fit the bill - marine air is supposed to push in and start cooling things down a bit, but the fair weather looks to hold till Friday eve.

A climber died from a fall on the NE side of Mt. Hood this morning
www.komonews.com/news/local/Search-for-f...-Hood-259092541.html

I haven't been up yet this week but I have to think the sun is really cooking up there. They started turning lifts at 8 this week and that is a good indication that the warm weather is taking over. DG makes a good point about the transition days but you really never know until you get out on the snow. I'm planning to ski Friday just because that is the only day I can take off. If I didn't have to work I would try to ski Hood every day this week.