Home > Trip Reports > January 31, 2016, - Newton Creek - Hood

January 31, 2016, - Newton Creek - Hood

1/31/16
OR Mt Hood
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Posted by nexus6 on 2/1/16 4:12am
Did a few laps in Newton on Sunday. Dug a quick pit at the treeline before the open slopes in a wind deposited area. Found a CT6 Q2 at 10cm (new snow), CT13 Q3 at around 30cm (likely wind layer) and CT26 at ~90cm on the interface with the rain crust. No signs of propagation and completely right side up so we decided to ski the open slopes one at a time. Excellent slightly wind packed pow with even better snow lower down in the glades. Lovely mostly bluebird day.

However it was very busy with probably 20 to 30 people out and we saw some very unsafe avalanche terrain behavior such as stopping to skin up mid slope (despite an island of safety being 75 feet away), bunched travel on the skin track, multiple skiers on a line at the same time and dropping in above other groups. Even though there weren't any signs of instability Newton is still major avy slope and I was pretty shocked at the behavior I was seeing. There's a reason all the trees are missing branches on the uphill side. I fear that as things get busier Newton will someday be the site of an accident involving an entire party getting caught in a slide at the same time. Stay safe out there!
Nice picture! 

I'll never understand why Newton is SO popular.  The turns are good, but IMHO it's a terrible slog to get there only the find the place carved up.  I've also witnessed some shady avy protocol there...  maybe it's because it's so busy that people don't take the risks seriously.

author=butteredstuffs link=topic=35632.msg145817#msg145817 date=1454360542]
Nice picture! 

I'll never understand why Newton is SO popular.  The turns are good, but IMHO it's a terrible slog to get there only the find the place carved up.  I've also witnessed some shady avy protocol there...  maybe it's because it's so busy that people don't take the risks seriously.


I think the proximity to Meadows and easy exit is part of the issue and it does get less wind affected than White River. Slog is a little long, but nothing terrible. I think we left the parking lot a 9:00 and topped out at 10:30.

I think what I was seeing was some lack of experience or education as well as people watching others ski and then assuming everything was green light. It doesn't really matter that you've watched 12 skiers ski a slope and nothing happens, that's still not a reason not to follow safe travel procedures.


I think most people don’t want to ski down out of the runout zone to skin back up, but then if you do your still exposed to skiers coming down in the trees. There really isn’t a good way back to the top.

author=Koda link=topic=35632.msg145825#msg145825 date=1454363707]
I think most people don’t want to ski down out of the runout zone to skin back up, but then if you do your still exposed to skiers coming down in the trees. There really isn’t a good way back to the top.


Agreed, there's no 100% safe skin track route in Newton which makes safe(r) travel protocol even more important. Spacing out your party by 150 ft. or so will at least lessen the chance of a multiple burial accident. What I was seeing was groups tip to tail on the ski track mid slope, skiing right behind each other or doing their transition mid slope when a raised safe knoll was 75 feet away. That's just basic stuff.

I tend to avoid Newton creek on the weekends due to the amount of people touring in that area. It seems to always be a circus up there on the weekends. I had a group of guys attempt to drop cornice bombs on top my partner and I as we were skinning up. We gave them the courtesy of skinning up to the top before dropping into our line. Newton isn't too bad during the midweek when you're sharing the entire ridge with less than 10 people

Definitely not the place to go if you want to avoid Bozos.

Overheard there on Saturday: "Yeah man, the best thing about this place is that it's pretty much always safe".

Not 20 minutes later a solo skier center-punched the wind loaded side of the main bowl.

The best part is that everyone starts to watch you if it looks like you know what you're doing, and they copy you. God forbid that you dig a pit. If you dig and then ski, it's like ski patrol dropped the rope.

Newton does require additional caution with all the traffic, much like a resort minus the AVY control work.  Nice work Nexus digging the pit on a marginal day.  Not being there my comments are only questions.  The CT13 on the Q3 older wind slab at 30cm might give me a little concern.  I have seen variable bed surfaces similar to your Q3 only to find a few feet away a much lower value.  The wind up there has a tendency to create pockets of instability that can trigger and run into  more stable areas.  Any ECT values from your pit, or hasty info in other areas to backup your pit info at the 30cm layer?

I have had no trouble setting skin track in the trees once to the bottom.  It is kind of a pain having to negotiate the pillows back at the top for laps, but is generally a safer climb.  I agree with everything said here about skin tracks and skinning protocols on open faces.  Trip reports like this are good for all, especially those that read them and realize they were the ones ignoring protocols. 

Sounds like a good day.  Thanks for the TR.

I was up on Newton Saturday too. Saw a group that was digging a pit, recognized the wind loading and instability along the ridgeline, and the proceeded to ski right over the skin track with people skinning on it...twice. Oh yeah, and this group of 6 or so was skiing simultaneously, and most of them were pretty bad skiers. I was on the skin track both times they skied by. I believe @cascadekid was skinning a few hundred vertical feet above me both times.

Equipment is not necessarily preparedness, knowledge is not necessarily judgment. I think what really bothered me about this group is that they clearly had sufficient avy education to dig a pit and do a rudimentary snow analysis. Yet they didn't have the judgment to ski in a way that did not put other skiers in danger.

After reading this report, I was pretty unnerved by the whole situation: http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=62de0c5c5043a78a5a401c050&id=f17be95fda&e=fc8fc08556 (I know the link looks like spam, but its links to COAA, I promise).

I won't claim to be flawless in my backcountry etiquette, and I certainly have much to learn. But I think my experience on Saturday, combined with the incident reported to COAA, has really made me think about the danger of others in the back country.

All that being said, Saturday in Newton Canyon had some of the best snow I've skied in Oregon. But I don't know if I'll be back on a weekend anytime soon. I just hope it doesn't take an avalanche death to scare people into thoughtfulness.

The authors of the Tumalo incident report demonstrate poise, personal reflection, and constructive analysis beyond compare.  It is completely justifiable to not tolerate an individual's utter lack of participation in accountability and responsibility for one's actions.  We all make mistakes.  But there's a reason why leaving the scene of an accident is a crime. 

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