I-90 Closed for Epic Snowfall!

I lived at Alpental during the world record snow years of 71 thru 73.  I do not recall closures back then like those seen this season.  And this season does not come close to the snowfalls of the early seventies.  Craig Wilbur, who has been and I imagine still is with WSDOT, was on the ALPY patrol then so he may have a better quantitative memory on this than I.  What say ye Craig?  Both E & W bound lanes were on the same road bed then and I assume made it harder to maintain.  I always thought that the new elevated W bound lanes were built there to reduce the avy exposure/closure problem.  Now I'm rethinking in that maybe it wasn't such a smart idea afterall as they have 2 road beds with slide paths from both sides of the Denny Cr. to maintain instead of the the old single roadbed.  The old road, with its snow shed, now foolishly removed, may in fact have been easier to maintain.

Now a little rant:  As alluded to above regarding Eyman and all; I work for a local government that has seen significant decrease in manpower despite the +/- 6-fold increase in demand.  I suspect state government is in the same predicament.  I would wager that there are less WSDOT plowers today than there have been since, well.....pick a decade.  When ever I see a reduction or lack of government services that I once took for granted I am fond of saying "Your tax cuts at work".  It seems like nowadays we expect much more of our government, (and private industry), than our parents did and we want to pay less for it.   You get what you pay for......  Hey what are ya gonna to do with your grandkids mortgage from China, tax refund?  We could all buy snow blowers, drive up there and help out WSDOT.   Now there's pow(d)er to the people.

Just a call from Jeff S he is skiing at Snoqalomie west. Not sure if he will get home. Deep powder ,Wildside not open so limited steepness for all that powder. He must just made it through. This story i'll hear for years.

Snoqualmie Pass is definitely one of those compounded mistake in terms of its routing. The usual sequence of Indian trail / wagon road / railroad / unpaved / paved highway was followed, often with each sited pretty near the other because easier to build that way. Never mind that the Indians probably would have never thought to try that route in the winter, or at least would have stayed in the trees. Flooding Lake Keechelus as far as they did and forcing the highway onto the steep banks was another loser move in terms of transportation efficiency as well as the snowshed deal. Eric Lindahls comments about 1/2 roadbeds is interesting. For sure the risk of icing on the free-suspended bridge over Denny Creek is greater than an equivalent ground level roadbed, but that's a different problem.

Either Stampede Pass or Yakima Pass would have been safer routes, and actually would have straightened out the notorious 'airplane curve' too. I can't find that anyone has ever written this up, but I think it is more than coincidence that the improved wagon road and first paved road were both built or financed by Seattle-founding Denny family; the same Denny family that also happened to own extensive iron and copper mine holdings all within a few miles of the current highway route.

Actually during the 71 - 72 period mentioned the pass was closed for about the same period or maybe longer if my memory serves.  I was in Wenatchee (which was buried too) trying to get back to the westside.  After waiting for a couple days they finally opened White pass.  The only other option was to drive back along the Columbia then north up I-5.  During the entire drive back until we reached Morton we never got over 30 mph.  It was a long day.

I marvel at folks who try and blame the weather on some governmental institution, or lack of funds because of a tax cut intuitive that everybody voted on, or who knows what else. The plain fact is there is lot's of snow in the mountains here and in many other places in the world right now,with more to follow.  It's happened in he past and will in the future.  In fact the avi that just happened at Snoqualmie pass has buried several cars and searchers are looking to see if anyone is still buried.  The road is covered with 30 feet of snow along 150 feet of highway.

The record setting year for Snoqualmie was 1955/56 of 828". Check the stats here for a rundown. 71/72 recorded 600" which was topped in 96/97 by 602" (also 73/74)...... FWIW...

hyak.net/snowfallhist.html

I was wondering if anyone had any pictures from past trips or a quick google earth image that would illustrate some of the more suspect slide paths that effect I-90. Especially the ones from exit 52 east.