March 18
The Twisp maintenance crew began removing snow from the east side. They started at the Silver Star gate with a Kodiak snow blower. A second blower from Stevens pass has since joined the effort. They will clean out 18 avalanche chutes, many have deposited large amounts of snow slide debris on the roadway, which include rock and trees. Crews will be working with the risk of avalanches from the time the operation reaches the first chute below Cutthroat Ridge until the job is complete.
From the west, WSDOT and Lloyd Logging Construction crews have reached the large slides below Liberty Bell mountain this week after finishing the slides in the Cut Throat area. The dozers are pushing snow from LB1 and LB2 as the snow blowers are widening the highway through the hairpin turn of Spiral Gulch down through the Annex avalanche chute.
Week of April 4, 2002
On the east side this week the weather had been cold and the snow pack stable. The current weather pattern has turned warm towards the end of this week, which may cause avalanche activity.
On the west side, one of the guys scouted ahead and reported that the snow stake at Rainy Pass shows 11 feet of snow off of the highway. Next week we will have to get a dozer hauled in when we reach Swamp Creek. The snow will be too deep for the blowers to handle alone shortly beyond that point.
Week of April 11, 2002
An avalanche occurred at Liberty Bell on the slope called the Annex. This is in the area of the hairpin turn where the roadway is actually a switchback.
The slide chute came down in a slab avalanche refilling the roadway 10 feet deep for about 60 feet in width. It was triggered by a snow blower and dozer working on the upper roadway.
Week of April 19, 2002
When they started work Monday they found that the Avalanche chutes under Liberty Bell Mountain and Cutthroat Ridge had slid back in over the weekend.
The east side and west side crews are about three miles apart. The snow pack is very hard and seems to be even harder than before as we progress to the West of Washington pass.
Week of April 25, 2002
A crew is working to cut and clear trees that have been in the way of widening in some areas while another crew continues to widen the road. We opened a single slot from Bridge creek to Rainy Pass to meet up with the Westside on Wednesday of this week. Our ditching operation continues with the main focus on cleaning up the worst areas first. It is most likely that this work will continue after the opening date, as the snow has not yet melted out of some of ditches. The lowboy brought up the sweeper today and will take the cat out on the back haul.
The North Cascades Highway will be open at 8:00 AM Tuesday May 7, 2002