Thursday, April 26
The pass opens today at 2 p.m.
Read the news release. |
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Monday, April 23
The east and west side crews had expected to meet sometime last Wednesday. Instead, they ended up within shouting distance of one another. That was because a gear and bearing went out on one of the snowblowers near the summit of Washington Pass. We were forced to order the replacements parts from Nevada. Crews spent most of Thursday trying to fix the blower.
Then, the second blower died because of a bad alternator. Both blowers were broke. Crews stole a good alternator from the other broken blower and got one working again. Needless to say, Thursday was a bit of a wash in terms of progress.
The weather on Thursday was sunny and 53 degrees at Washington Pass summit, which helped keep everyone’s spirits up, despite the broken parts and delays.
Work this week will involve widening the cuts to the shoulders, cutting pull out areas, fixing guardrail, clearing more culverts and removing more of those downed trees along the shoulders. We’re also hoping the temperature changes occur gradually so the avalanche chutes that still have snow in them will remain stable. (If it warms too quickly, the snow layers separate and slide.)
Despite the equipment breakdowns, the crews are still optimistic they can have the highway open next week (first week in May) – they’re just not able to predict which day.
Do you want an e-mail sent directly to your inbox notifying you when the pass opens? Send an email to Jeff Adamson requesting to be added to his North Cascades pass e-mail update list.
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Wednesday, April 18
We have made such good progress in the last week that we now plan to open the pass the first week in May. We are ahead of schedule. We have a single lane cut through the snow across the entire pass.
We will spend the next two weeks widening the snow banks and creating two lanes for drivers. We will also replace sections of guardrail and concrete barrier that were removed for the winter.
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Friday, April 13
East side update:
We brought in two D-8 Caterpillars from Lloyd Logging and Pipkin Construction this week to help clear the Liberty Bell avalanche chute zone. We needed the extra help moving all the snow.
We finished clearing the 30-foot high, 1,200-foot wide pile of snow beneath Cuttroat Ridge avalanche chute 10 on Monday, and then zipped through Cutthroat Ridge 11 and 12.
Tuesday, we cleared Cutthroat Ridge chute 13, the last avlanche chute along Cutthroat Ridge. We then cut a single lane through the snow with the snowblower to Spiral Gulch and Liberty Bell 1.
Wednesday and Thursday we widened the path through the snow to Liberty Bell, and used the snow-cats and snowblowers to whittle away at the 50-foot deep snow piles below Liberty Bell.
Weather was a mixed bag - snow some days and sunshine the next, but nothing that held up work. Equipment issues declined - nothing broke!
The official target opening date is still mid May, but last week's progress was impressive.
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Thursday, April 12
West side update:
The sun shined brightly on the pass as crews worked diligently to cut a single lane through the six-foot deep snow with the snowblower to Rainy Pass, near milepost 160. We are 10 miles further up the pass than we were last week. The clearing effort has been less about mud, rock and trees this week and all about the snow. Both blowers are making great progress. We have the snow widened to two lanes up to milepost 162.
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Friday, April 6
East side update:
The crews had a great week and completed a full shoulder to shoulder cut through 10 of the 13 Cutthroat Ridge avalanche chutes (to about milepost 167). One of the snowblowers broke down Thursday morning and took four hours to fix, but that was the worst hold up all week. Weather wasn't a factor. Everyone stayed healthy. Next week, the work gets tougher as the snow gets deeper and the elevation gets higher.
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Thursday, April 5
West side update:
We finished cleaning up mud, water and rocks that spilled across the highway. We got all the culverts and ditches emptied so they can handle the water from melting snow. With most of that work now accomplished, we will transition into a full snowblower operation.
The small loader-mounted snowblower had a clutch problem that cost us a day and a half of work. As of today, both the full-size blower and the loader-mounted unit are working east from milepost 149.5. Snow is completely removed from the highway to milepost 148. That's 14 miles past the west closure gate. The snow depth has settled to just over three feet deep, but we have three inches of solid ice stuck to the pavement.
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Monday, April 2
East side update:
The weather continues to cooperate. The sun came out a few times, melting some snow. We added one large snowblower to the opening effort last Wednesday. By the end of the work week, we had cleared and widened nearly eight miles of the highway to its full width, from Early Winters to just below the east closure gate at Lone Fir Campground. We also completed two blower cuts about three miles further west into the Cutthroat Ridge Avalanche Zone, where they got started again early Monday morning of week #2.
West side update:
Due to the minor flooding event we had to spend much of last week dealing with mud and debris that went over the road between milepost 140 and 146.
We cut a path through the snow with a V-plow between milepost 146 and 148. We will blow snow off the highway with our snowblower today (Monday, April 2). The snow depth starts at a little over two feet at 146 and is over three feet deep at MP 148.
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Monday, March 26
East side update:
We started clearing the North Cascades Highway and made great progress despite a few glitches. The weather cooperated; there was no new snow and it wasn't too cold.
The crew of five are running a giant V-Plow (to make the initial cut), a snowblower (to widen what the V-Plow opened), an excavator (to deal with the downed trees they've found buried in the snow) and a road grader (removes ice and provides a drivable surface after the plow and blower are through.) The V-Plow made a 6-1/4 mile cut from Early Winters to about a mile shy of the east closure gate near Silver Star Creek. The blower was able to widen that to almost two lanes. They found 16 large trees buried in the snow on the roadway (12 in the first two miles - and the V-Plow blade looks a bit more, uh, cursive now than it did this morning).
Maintenance Superintendent Dean Hills says it's still working, it's just going to require some attention from one of mechanics with a welder tomorrow. We found snow about 28" deep at Early Winters and 40" where we are now.
Later this week, a second snowblower, Caterpillars and a Sno-Cat will join the team to help clear snow under the Cutthroat Ridge avalanche zone.
Dean says they didn't see anything today that changes the timetable - mid May is still the likely opening.
West side update:
Recent heavy rains have been both a plus and a minus. The warmer temperatures and rain melted snow off the highway as far as East Creek Trail at milepost 145, fifteen miles past the closure gate. The unfortunate thing is that the rain caused a few problems. "We are spending our first week scooping mud and rocks off the highway," said Superintendent Ted Dempsey. "Recent heavy rains plugged three or four culverts and spilled mud and rocks across the highway between mileposts 140 and 146. Its going to take some time to move all that junk off the highway. It's 10 to 12 inches deep in places." We hope to start plowing and blowing snow off the highway by Monday, April 2.
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Monday, March 12
We will start plowing snow on Monday, March 26, in our annual effort to open the pass for drivers. We estimate it will take five to six weeks to clear the greater-than-normal snow depths and open the pass. We hope to have the pass open by mid-May.
Accorind to Maintenance Superintendent Dean Hills, there was more snow than normal covering the highway and lodged in the avalanche chutes.
Snow Depths:
- Silver Star Gate: 4 feet
- Cutthroat Ridge avalanche chutes:12 to 35 feet
- Cutthroat Ridge 10: snow slide of 20 feet deep and 1,200 feet wide.
- Liberty Bell Mountain avalanche chutes: 40 to 55 feet deep
- Washington Pass summit: 8 feet
- Rainy Pass summit: 9 feet
- Whistler: 15 feet
Due to the depth of the snow from the avalanche chutes, much of the clearing will have to be done by caterpillars rather than snowblowers, which will slow the work, somewhat. At the same time, the assessment found little rock and tree debris in the slides which could speed the progress.
Read the news release.
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