Snow removal assessment includes advice from Mazama, the Avalanche Rescue Goat
Information and photo from the WSDOT Newsletter
It’s that time of year again – a couple of days of sunshine and everybody wants to know if the North Cascades Highway is going to be open this weekend – NOT.
However Mike and Don and about 8 other folks headed up to the North Cascades and did the annual assessment. In beautiful sunshine the 4 snow cats and 8 snowmobiles delivered the largest assessment crew ever in time for lunch at Washington Pass where they found only 6 feet of snow (last year it was 10). Can’t say yet whether that will translate into a faster opening than the last couple years (6 and 8 weeks), but the word for the day was “low snow”. Liberty Bell chutes that delivered 35 to 70 feet of snow on the road the last few years delivered 20 to 30 feet this year.
Winter isn’t quite over at a mile high in the mountains and there’s still snow in the chutes, but the calendar is on our side – historical data says we ought to be getting some spring and we can stop listening to the groundhog and start taking cues from our newest crewmember – Mazama, the Avalanche Rescue Goat (ARG) who is allowing Pink Floyd to retire!
Here’s the link to some pictures from the trip (yes, they’re similar to the last 19 years worth of assessment photos) which is exactly what you want.
In a few days when the avalanche, maintenance and weather wizards finish their analysis, DOT will be back with the actual (tentative) start of clearing date. Watch for it.
Happy spring.
