I-90 Closed for Epic Snowfall!

It's still hard to see why all these slides are happening with snowfall rates only about half an inch an hour...

Well, the snow is dry by PNW standards being that most of it fell with temps in the low to mid 20's so maybe that is why it is not more stable? My buddy at Hyak said he has about 4 feet of new dry snow in his driveway (DOT reports 3 feet as of 7am from past 2 days)....lots of snow sliding around those slopes.

I was up at my cabin Monday and the foot of snow I shoveled was very light.... I need to get back up there to catch up on my shoveling before it gets too deep. As you can tell, my deck has a little snow on it....

I70 never closes  :

updated 9:59 p.m. PT, Mon., Dec. 31, 2007
DENVER - Wind-whipped snow and avalanche danger closed the main highway through the Colorado mountains for most of Monday, stranding hundreds of travelers.

Portions of a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 70 — the main route between Denver and some of the state's biggest ski resorts — were shut down in both directions from around 5 p.m. Sunday until about 4 p.m. Monday.

The long delay had some travelers contemplating the prospect of welcoming the new year on a cot in a shelter. More than 2,000 spent Sunday night in shelters, but the Red Cross closed all its shelters Monday after traffic started moving.

And closed again one week later:

Interstate 70 back open after avalanche control

Associated Press - January 7, 2008 1:14 PM ET

DENVER (AP) - Interstate 70 is back open after avalanche crews brought down a big slide near the Eisenhower Tunnel.

The slide, which was between 6 and 10 feet deep, was triggered halfway between the tunnel and Silverthorne and covered all six lanes of the highway.

I-70 over Vail Pass was also temporarily shut down for avalanche control but is back open.

******

Not to mention closed 3 weeks earlier:

COLORADO ROAD REPORTS
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DENVER CO
130 PM MST MON DEC 10 2007

HIGHWAY CITY/AREA CONDITIONS


I-70 Vail Pass WB wet spts, icy spts
CLOSED MM 190. Avalanche control. Expect delays.
I-70 Vail Pass EB wet spts, icy spts
CLOSED MM 184. Avalanche control. Expect delays.

Update:  I'm still stuck on the pass.  Back at the Summit Inn lobby.  Took a dip in the hot tub too  Seems to be 4 slides covering various locations of I90 currently.  So what's one to do when there's nothing to do but ski? So I skied again today. : Alpental was as good/better than yesterday, and even fewer people.  They didn't open until about 10:30, and Chair 2 opened promplty.  I mooched a warm bed and washing machine from  Matt/Heidi in Hyak, THANKS A MILLION!!  Skied with Matt/GravityMK and friends.  While at Alpental, a slide temporarily blocked Alpental Drive, so we were stuck even more!  Thankfully, it was relatively shallow and after blowing the hangfire, they got it cleared again.  By the time I left, downhill traffic to Seattle was clocked again by a natural slide as seen in the Denny Ck image above.  They're in the process of clearing it, and it should be another hour, but once cleared they still face the same high avy danger, and the snow is supposed to continue to pound all night, so it's uncertain if they will open it up.  It's pretty fun to be able to watch the action unfolding, adn the machinery clearing the slide and the involved car.  My day of skiing has now become 2 night and 2 days.... Mmmm, it was lovely today!

Philfort ,wind can transport snow at a rate of ten times normal precip. maybe more ?
We were going nightskiing tonight and two of us left early. They got there cell phones off or out of range.
Lucky for me I'm drinking a beer in a warm room while those DOT guys and gals are trying to get all those trucks moving again and get me back up there tomorrow night.

Seems to me that several of you are making excuses for the WSDOT.

I'm also hearing that several of you think that Snoqualmie Pass has unique characteristics that other mountian passes don't have, like"big and rugged mountians" and "wet heavy snow", or "linear mileage". I don't think the characteristics of Snoqualmie Pass are that unique to warrant a closure like this one.

All I'm trying to say is that other areas are able to keep their mountian passes open during heavy snowfall. And how long did it take them to re-open the pass? Something like 20 hours?

If we know it takes more time, labor and machinery to clear the roads of this Heavy Cascade Concrete, why don't we have more of those resources? Why do we just make excuses for the DOT?

I was amazed to read an article about how much money the state loses for every minute our mountain passes are closed.  The DOT, city, and State as well as the overall business community have every incentive one could imagine to keep the pass open.  Freeways are for commerce and skier traffic makes up a very small percentage of this commerce in dollars.  

Big money wants the pass open, then it will be open whenever it is possible.

That said I'm sure DOT could always use more man-power.  But then again, if regional voters are any indicator of the politics it will take to make that happen, few of the public seem to support more money for highway improvements.  How many of you in this forum voted against the last regional transit package?

Thirdly, I suspect a widespread lack of knowledge when it comes to the overall nature of our snowpack and geography.  I have lived and skied the Rockies, Cascades, and Coast Ranges.  The Coast Ranges are so very very different in my experience from the Rockes in almost all respects.  Generally speaking, Summit Country Colorado is tends to have more gradually graded mountains and only a fraction of the snowfall that the Cascades get.  In contrast the WA Cascades are annoyingly steep with frequent 4-7000 ft rises in elevation.  Avalanche paths abound.  Cliffs are everywhere.  Steeps are the norm.  Ski areas in Washington are a hard thing to build: finding a spot to cut four runs on a decently graded slope without running into a cliff is a rare find in this state.  Summit Country resembles a rolling prarie with plenty of room (in many more cases) for big highways, snowremoval, and dozens of blue square runs on the rolling hills.  Valley bottoms tend to be high...and the peaks not that much higher.  

Snow stability in the cascades does tend to be much better than the Rockies on the other hand.  My opinion on who's at fault for our frequent closures is that it involves the original designers of our beautiful I-90.  It was built through a bunch of slide areas: that was the real mistake here.  Untill we have tunnels this problem will percist.