Snoqualmie Pass was closed at 11 a.m. yesterday(3/19)
in the middle of a storm that piled 21 inches on the
summit between 6 a.m. and 3 p.m.
Because of extreme avalanche danger, skiers at the
summit were escorted home and motorists were stopped
and turned back. Yesterday's snow was atop 13 inches
that fell Monday.
Officials hoped to reopen both passes by 9 a.m.
today(3/20). The snow was expected to fall into the
morning, then taper off.
Snoqualmie Pass, the state's busiest cross-Cascades
route, had already seen 451 inches of snow before
yesterday. That compares with 300 inches that fell
between November 2000 and May 2001.
A little more than two hours after Snoqualmie closed,
Stevens Pass was also shut down, cutting off both
east-west routes over the Cascades north of Yakima.
Highway 2 across Stevens Pass reopened briefly at 1:50
p.m., but 10 minutes into letting traffic clear, a
couple avalanches released on their own and caught two
vehicles," said Jeff Adamson, spokesman for DOT's
north- central region.
Within the next half-hour, there were four more
avalanches, making it too dangerous to reopen the
highway.
About 16 inches of snow fell on the Stevens summit
Monday. Yesterday, avalanche-control crews were too
busy working to take snow-depth measurements.
The closures did more than just strand drivers...for
every hour Snoqualmie Pass was closed, estimates costs
$660,000 in lost freight mobility, that is, the losses
suffered by big rigs delivering goods to both sides of
the mountains.
Steve
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