I-90 Closed for Epic Snowfall!

First of all:
have you been reading this?

We just spent close to two weeks with no significant snowfall, lots of sun and warm temperatures on some aspects. We have a crust you find everywhere. Then we get lots of snow fall with winds adequete to transport. Add in lots of steep slide paths and the fact that the Snoqualmie Pass crew has 6 members who are expected to do control work, and that equals = can't keep up.

It sounds like the reports by people who are up there are of widespread natural avalanching. I don't understand why people can't comprehend this closure.

And danengel: one big difference, other than the fact that CO does inflate it's numbers horrendously, is that CO gets all that snow in about 6 dumps that usually happen in the early season. Here in WA we are more apt to get 8" at a time.

Funny you should ask for photos...I was just thinking about posting this photo (if I can get it to upload) to give folks not in the know some idea of what the WSDOT has on its plate. The slide path at the far right will fill all eastbound lanes with snow with only 6" of snowfall. You can see why, with a considerable starting zone funneling into a tight gun barrel (terrible almost unskiable terrain).  This path is the most productive, but only affects the eastbound lanes, as the westbound lanes are covered by a snow shed. Until the road changes, this path alone will make for frequent delays during prolonged snow events once the path gets greased up mid season. In addition, just before the summit headed at the end of the big wall (used to be the west shed) there is another trouble spot....not as impressive a slide path, but steep enough road grade that trucks frequently get stuck right in the runout zone. Drivers trying to free their or others stuck vehicles have been buried right on the road bed.

As far as the westbound lanes, they aren't as affected by regular snow events, except at the east shed where they have to close both directions when doing active control work. Once the blasting is done, westbound traffic will often get going right away, able to see the blowers clearing the eastbound lanes outside the shed. There are a few paths around the east shed, and once you get over the summit that hit the road with snow events such as we are seeing now. The problem with the paths that affect westbound traffic on the west side of the pass is that the only way to control most of them is with artillery. Artillery is about as effective as farting out the window of your car when you get the kind of snow we've been getting. It works much better in the dry sissy snow of the rockies and Wasatch. So...the slides come down when they feel like it. It is up to the DOT to try and encourage the snow to get down from there and stop threatening those weary travelers and truck drivers, and shut the road when the snow just doesn't listen.

Hey Craig...try yelling LOUDER!

What would you plan to do when you hit Rockdale?  Go over, around or through the mtn?  From NB it would be roughly 23 miles I'd guess....how long depends on how fast you go.

Note that the doors on the Hyak tunnel are closed and locked Nov-May -- you'll have to skin up past "Grand Junction"

I'm impressed that today's slide activity seems to have involved traffic getting hit by a natural slide. Yesterday's (Tuesday) natural slide/car interaction was made possible by a badly timed (and located) accident. Was there something similar today?

Though I'm sure they're too busy to read it 'till later: Highway avy folks! Please be really, really, really sure you've bombed the poo out of anything that's going to slide naturally before opening to traffic. We trust you - if you're not sure, bomb it until it poos, or just close the pass. We're happy to sit grumbling in our cars for days while deep powder passes us by if it means we get to live to ski corn in the summer. Easing public pressure to open a pass isn't worth the price of screwing up.

It's really a awesome winter event. I can't remember ever hearing about multiple slides on the same afternoon? I do remember bouncing around on the lower crust Sunday though.

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. 

Below is a google earth image looking southwest over Snoqualmie Pass, which shows the general location of the slide path (brown arrow) where the 2 cars were caught earlier today. This slide path is on the eastern side of Granite Mountain and near the southern end of the causeway over Denny Creek. Sounded like it may have been fairly deep slide from the State Transporation Secretary's description in a newscast that rocks were present in the slide debris.