I-90 Closed for Epic Snowfall!

That weather station would be very difficult to knock out with an avalanche.

Aha! Great. I was simply going off the fact that the 3120' reporting had ceased to function. It's going again at 1400 - is it powered by landlines?

Aha! Great. I was simply going off the fact that the 3120' reporting had ceased to function. It's going again at 1400 - is it powered by landlines?

Today EVERYTHING was out on Snoqualmie Pass. Power, Landline phones, Mobile Phones from 2am until 2pm when the power returned and eventually the landline phones restored. Mobile was still down when I left at 4:30pm. I'm very surprised the landline phones were down. I can't believe Century Tel doesn't have generator power to keep the phone lines up. I don't think I've ever experienced landline phone loss even in multiple day power outages elsewhere.

They're going to control the alpental area via helicopter ( www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/info/winter/weekend.asp ):

IMPORTANT UPDATE: As you are no doubt aware, while the past week's storm has dumped foot upon foot of terrific powder, it has also unfortunately created historic avalanche dangers. These extreme avalanche conditions have created the need to not only do control work on the skiing slopes of Alpental but on many of the surrounding slopes as well in order to ensure the safey of the road and parking lots. This work must be done by helicopter and unfortunately the weather has not yet allowed this to happen. We are very hopeful tomorrow's weather will allow helicopters to fly and allow us to complete this extremely important work. Please know your safety and the safety of our employees is always our number one priority. Therefore... the bad news in this message... Alpental will need to remain closed for at least one more day while this work is complete. Please keep your fingers crossed for clearing skies Sunday and thanks in advance for your understanding. Like you, we want to get Alpental open as soon as safely possible. We look forward to seeing you very soon making powder turns on the slopes!

Lowell in reply # 81 asked about the removal of the snow shed. At the time I heard it was an Interstate design criteria that lanes can not be separated. It seemed foolish to me to remove it as I can remember many times two way traffic diverted through the shed while snow blowers cleared slide debris from the two northern most "outdoor" lanes. Of course we have seperated Interstate lanes all over the country now, including around Federal Way on I-5.

I suspect that  that the lack of plowing on the sno-parks as more to do with keeping the WSDOT personel and equipment focused on keeping the road open and reducing traffic on I-90 after a difficult period.   -- but releasing a safety oriented message is probably the right public relations choice compared to say -- "Sno-parks closed until the WSDOT crews get a good night's sleep and a little R&R after working 16 hour shifts for the past four days"

Hi Randy,
Just a polite factual clarification: the Crystal Springs and Cabin Creek snowparks are plowed by a private contractor with state snowpark funds.  However, the offramps and onramps may be WSDOT, I am not sure.
Peacefully,
John

Check out this article about our weak layer in snow pack
www.avalancheinfo.net/Media/Persistent%2...r%20of%202007-08.pdf