https://www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/Passes/NorthCascades/updates2012.htm
Hi all,
Hope your Easter was the celebration you hoped for!
Day 1, Week 3
…with lunch boxes packed with egg salad and ham and cheese sandwiches, the crews ventured up SR 20 Monday eager to resume the assault on their white nemesis…
(That opening line was in deference to those who have lamented that this year’s e mails lacked a certain level of literary impact.)
Back to reality- It was positively spring like at Cutthroat Creek – 54 degrees and sunny a mid afternoon. CR#1 only had about 8’ of extra snow accumulated below it on the road and had been determined to be stable enough to let the crew clear it without an avalanche spotter on hand.
The avalanche crew was down at Stevens Pass doing what they hope will be the last avalanche control needed this year. The warm temperatures over the weekend brought sunshine to “the meadows” which is a section of (Cowboy) mountain that feeds into Old Faithful #4. With the volume of snow still up there, and the potential sunshine has to cause snow layers to slide, Stevens became the priority Monday. So far as motorists were concerned, it was a non-event in that the highway was only closed for about half an hour and only a little bit of snow actually reached the road (shoulder, really). Mike Stanford was quite pleased with the effort since it “moved around” a lot of unstable snow that now will simply sit and melt (provided we don’t get a pile of new snow on top…)
Over the past month since the assessment trip, the accumulations on the road have grown. Cutthroat Ridge chutes #6 through 8 measured 16 feet March 7 and 18 feet last Thursday (April 5). Liberty Bell saw the same thing as LB #1 grew from 25 to 35’, LB #2 from 25 to 40’ and LB #3 from 40 to 58’.
By the end of Monday, the highway was widened to its full width from the gate to Cutthroat Creek and two new slots had been cut to CR#1.
On the Westside, progress was pretty much stopped when the transmission on the loader-mounted snow blower blew.
Tuesday brought reinforcements to both sides. The Skykomish Kodiak Snow Blower arrived in time to replace the smaller broken one, and a caterpillar and the avalanche crew’s snow cat joined the effort on the east side.
Will have new pictures posted tomorrow.
[email protected] 509.667.2815
Hi all,
Hope your Easter was the celebration you hoped for!
Day 1, Week 3
…with lunch boxes packed with egg salad and ham and cheese sandwiches, the crews ventured up SR 20 Monday eager to resume the assault on their white nemesis…
(That opening line was in deference to those who have lamented that this year’s e mails lacked a certain level of literary impact.)
Back to reality- It was positively spring like at Cutthroat Creek – 54 degrees and sunny a mid afternoon. CR#1 only had about 8’ of extra snow accumulated below it on the road and had been determined to be stable enough to let the crew clear it without an avalanche spotter on hand.
The avalanche crew was down at Stevens Pass doing what they hope will be the last avalanche control needed this year. The warm temperatures over the weekend brought sunshine to “the meadows” which is a section of (Cowboy) mountain that feeds into Old Faithful #4. With the volume of snow still up there, and the potential sunshine has to cause snow layers to slide, Stevens became the priority Monday. So far as motorists were concerned, it was a non-event in that the highway was only closed for about half an hour and only a little bit of snow actually reached the road (shoulder, really). Mike Stanford was quite pleased with the effort since it “moved around” a lot of unstable snow that now will simply sit and melt (provided we don’t get a pile of new snow on top…)
Over the past month since the assessment trip, the accumulations on the road have grown. Cutthroat Ridge chutes #6 through 8 measured 16 feet March 7 and 18 feet last Thursday (April 5). Liberty Bell saw the same thing as LB #1 grew from 25 to 35’, LB #2 from 25 to 40’ and LB #3 from 40 to 58’.
By the end of Monday, the highway was widened to its full width from the gate to Cutthroat Creek and two new slots had been cut to CR#1.
On the Westside, progress was pretty much stopped when the transmission on the loader-mounted snow blower blew.
Tuesday brought reinforcements to both sides. The Skykomish Kodiak Snow Blower arrived in time to replace the smaller broken one, and a caterpillar and the avalanche crew’s snow cat joined the effort on the east side.
Will have new pictures posted tomorrow.
[email protected] 509.667.2815