North Cascades Highway latest opening in 20 years?

The WSDOT just scouted the North Cascades Highway a few days ago on March 17 and found avy debris up to 60 ft deep in spots.

From www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/northcascades :

March 2011

PASS STATUS: Closed

Spring opening
Looks like we might have the latest spring opening in 20 years. We took our annual scouting trip up the highway on Thursday, March 17, and found a whole lot of snow. Here are some great photos of the snow. The snow is up to 60 feet in the Liberty Bell avalanche zone.

Long-range forecasts are calling for continued heavy snowfall through the last week in March. We'll have to keep our snow blowers and avalanche resources focused on Stevens Pass. We will likely not start the North Cascades reopening effort until early to mid April.

Photos: SR 20 Scouting trip 2011 - North Cascades Highway: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157626170712679/

According to www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/northcas...s/closurehistory.htm , the lastest openings in the last 20 years have been May 7 in 1997 and 2002.

This thread on cc.com has some more info via email from WSDOT's Jeff Adamson: cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php...wflat/Number/1010084

Looks like 2 of the earliest were w/in the past decade: 2005 obviously, and 2001 (at least by tomorrow), where they were both open already. Maybe I'll be off crutches by the time it opens, but who knows....

Well, May 7 has come and gone with no road opening, so it's now certain to be the latest opening of SR 20 in at least 35 years, since it opened on May 21 in 1976.

Lots of good info is regularly posted in that thread on cc.com ( cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php...wflat/Number/1010084 ), which basically has extended email versions of the updates posted on the WSDOT website at www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/northcascades/updates.htm . Not sure how to get on that email list, since it's not part of the WSDOT Email Updates .

And at least you're already off crutches now for a few weeks, Dave!

Yes, the long awaited WA. Pass opening has us enticed indeed. I certainly hope it opens by Memorial day as I am planning to do some white water rafting on the Methow that weekend and was hoping to ski a day prior and on the way home. Would make a shorter drive if its open.

Yes Dave, you have skied now and it's only going to get better as spring progresses. Time to get your game on again.

The huge late-season snowpack and delayed highway opening is the main story on the front page of today's Seattle Times:

seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews...orthcascades12m.html

'Don't think I've ever seen this much snow this late' | North Cascades Highway
Snow up to 65 feet deep on the North Cascades Highway is causing one of the latest spring openings in the history of the 39-year-old highway.

Originally published May 11, 2011 at 8:35 PM | Page modified May 11, 2011 at 11:15 PM

by Jack Broom
Seattle Times staff reporter

The mammoth snowpack that has delighted skiers and challenged cross-state travelers over the past months is contributing to the latest opening of the North Cascades Highway since the 1970s, with workers clearing snow up to 65 feet deep.

"I've seen more snow up there, but I don't think I've ever seen this much snow this late," said Don Becker, a maintenance supervisor with the state Department of Transportation (WSDOT), working his 19th annual pass-clearing effort.

Becker said crews hope to clear the popular route by the Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start to the summer-vacation season. "That's not written in stone, but we're doing the best we can."

Only one time since the highway was completed in 1972 has the route been closed past Memorial Day, opening on June 14, 1974. In most years, it has been open by mid-to-late April.

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www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2011/05/23SR20SpringReopening.htm

North Cascades Highway reopens at noon Wednesday
Date:  Monday, May 23, 2011

WENATCHEE – Wednesday’s noon reopening of the North Cascades Highway marks the second latest since the highway opened 39 years ago. The latest ever was June 14, 1974, and the next latest, surpassed by this year, was in 1976 when it reopened on May 21.

WSDOT maintenance crews will open the east and west winter closure gates on SR 20 to traffic at noon on Wednesday, May 25.

The clearing effort took more than six weeks, compared to just three-and-a-half weeks last spring. Nine feet of snowfall in March and a record seven-and-a-half feet in April on the western slopes of the Cascades kept avalanche control technicians and snow clearing equipment on Stevens Pass until the avalanche threat eased and allowed the team to move up to the North Cascades. There, they found SR 20 buried in snow as deep as 75 feet.

“The crews are really pleased that the highway will be open for Memorial Day,” said Don Becker, WSDOT Twisp Maintenance Supervisor.

The noon reopening allows crews time to "sweep" the entire 37 mile winter closure zone for sand, rocks and debris between milepost 134, seven miles east of Diablo Dam on the west side of Rainy Pass 4,855 feet above sea level and nine miles west of Mazama at Milepost 171 below Washington Pass, elevation 5,477 feet.

"It provides the margin we need so the first drivers over the passes make their trip safely," said Becker. "We had to rent a helicopter and do active avalanche control in the Liberty Bell Mountain and Cutthroat Ridge zones on Friday to bring down snow from those chutes. We couldn't open the highway and allow traffic below potentially unstable avalanche zones."

It took Monday and will take all day Tuesday for crews finish removing the huge piles of snow that slid down to the pavement. In the Liberty Bell Mt. zone on Monday, crews cleared about half the 650 feet of roadway that was covered with snow from 10 to 30 feet deep.

When the gates swing open, drivers should find the road conditions bare and dry or bare and wet across the entire route. The forecasts for the next few days calls for high temperatures in the 60’s with a 30 to 50% chance of rain and a freezing level of 5,000 to 6,000 feet.

The highway closed for the winter Dec. 1. It typically opens between the last week in March and the first week in May. The earliest opening ever was March 10, 2005. One drought year, four years after the highway first opened in 1976, it remained open all winter.