Any way around the I-90 Traffic Jam at Exit 34?

Any way around the I-90 Traffic Jam at Exit 34?<br><br>"Traffic Flow Management" is difficult to deal with when you want to ski powder!<br><br>Theories? <br><br>-or-<br><br>How much is a ticket for driving in the breakdown lane?<br><br>Ha.

At exit 34, there is no way around. But when they do this at the Tinkham Rd exit (45?), I think it may be possible to get off at the first Tinkham exit and drive Tinkham Rd past the traffic. Of course, with any significant snow below ~2000' this is a non-option. Haven't tried it, but if traffic is really backed up and at a standstill, it could work.

There is a forest service dirt road on the south side of I-90 that connects exit 45 to exit 47. It goes right past the "Tikham campground"<br><br>It seems to me that it would be extremely rare that this route would ever be faster and there is a non-zero chance that the road will be impassable due to snow or downed trees.<br><br>FWIW -- there is no dirt road that connects exit 34 with exit 45.<br><br>With a dirt bike and enough bravado -- I suppose you could take exit 34, jump on to the John Wayne trail and follow it through the tunnel all the way to Hyak.

so does anyone know how bad it was trying to get to the pass last night? Just wondering how long its going to take to get to Alpental tonight.<br><br>

As for the pass last night, I left Bellevue at 4:15, and got on the slopes at around 5:30. It was slow and sketchy for the last 3 miles or so, several yahoos were in the high-speed lane doing little slides into other lanes, trucks everywhere putting chains on, and then plows doing strange things like backing up on the off ramp!

Reports show 17" new on Snoqualmie but the snow is suppose to come to an end pretty much so tonight should be fine. I plan to drive up today at noon (hopefully). <br><br>As far as road bypass. I've done the Tinkham road to Denny Creek in the past and I would imagine doing this in the winter, snow or no snow would be a challenge unless your in a good 4x4. There is an area on the road that is designed to allow water to flow over so you basically have to drive through the water. Any significant snow melt/rain could make that a challenge. I rode it on a motorcycle in late spring (no snow) and there was a good 1 1/2' of water flowing across the road. FWIW