SEATTLE — Record hot weather has boosted the avalanche danger in much of the Pacific Northwest with slides closing at least one highway and injuring a teenager in Oregon.
A 16-year-old boy was injured slightly Saturday in an avalanche on Mount Hood, east of Portland, Ore. Two others climbing with the teen near Hogsback Ridge managed to avoid being hit by the slide around 11:30 a.m., and the boy was able to walk down the mountain without assistance, Clackamas County sheriff’s detective Jim Strovink said.
Highway 20, the North Cascades Highway, has been closed by a snowslide near Liberty Bell since Thursday and won’t reopen before sometime in the coming week.
“Our avalanche team won’t go back in to reassess the conditions until Monday,” said Jeff Adamson, a Washington State Department of Transportation spokesman.
The Northwest Avalanche Center’s Web site recommended that backcountry visitors in the Cascade Range and Olympic Mountains avoid potential slide areas.
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