Make it stop.
Damn. We skied today and the drive back was treacherous. Very scary. Very long. Normally, it takes 40 minutes. Tonight it took over 2 and a half hours. We were traveling at 5 mph for a long time - after being motionless for 45 minutes.
This is what it looked like:
http://www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/winter/dayphoto.asp?Dir=&Image=io.jpg&Page=
Last year no snow. This year approximately 4 feet of snow will have fallen Friday night, this weekend alone. Current base = 108 inches. You do the math.
http://www.summitatsnoqualmie.com/winter/index.asp
They closed the pass after we left and the cars were backed up for miles, going eastbound. The web cams looked non-functioning when I realized it was just that foul. It was black
FXL
5 comments:
Did you have to break out the chains? What happens if they don't open the pass, everyone hangs at the ski lodge?
Funny story about the chains - we do have them, but no, I did not use them. I couldn't figure out the damn things! Plus, b-in-law Paul said, 'we'll be fine.' Well, he was right. And a Ford Taurus handles pretty well in snow, I've discovered.
But there were hairy moments. I have 50,000 mile original equipment tire. Radials rated for Snow and Mud. I the time we waited to get on the highway, 4 inches of snow fell on the car.
No plowing on a packed road. No chains. Try to picture this, you are basically going down hill for 30 minutes (or up) when you are traveling 70 mph.
We ended up making a U-turn to go down to the next East exit in order to go back up the other side of the hill to begin our descent to Issaquah.
You can see the DOT maps here.
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/snoqualmie/default.aspx?imgparam=5 You can see the frontage road on the map. We went down to Hyak to turn around and go Westbound on I90.
As of 8:30 today, the road is still closed. Sometimes the road is closed even when it is bare and wet, due to avalanche possibility. That might be the case now.
Beadlady wanted me to clarify - we were not traveling 70 mph downhill in a snowstorm.
We normal travel 70 mph and it normally take 30 minutes of descending.
However, the same 35 miles was traveled at speeds reaching at least 5 mph. I was 1st for a very long time.
I believe the time is west coast time.
Beadlady and BB- I figured 70 mph was reached with the brakes locked up and doing doughnuts down the hill. With everbody pinned against the one side of the car, screaming.
It's not 'frequently' closed. But it does periodically get closed with it is snowing like 2 feet a day!
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