There’s no way to drive across Washington mountains until sometime this weekend, as the worst combination of snow and rain in many years has closed all four of the state’s winter highway routes between east and west.
A whiteout snowstorm early Thursday, followed by freezing rain and a half-foot or more of snow in the forecast, forced the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) to close Snoqualmie, Stevens, White and Blewett passes.
These closures will delay freight moving across the Northwest, while ravaging the plans of New Year’s week travelers, on their way back to homes and colleges. Alpine resorts are blanketed in snow, a lot of it unstable, without the means for skiers to arrive.
WSDOT is telling the public it doesn’t expect to reopen the passes until Saturday, and that travelers should delay plans for at least a few days.
It’s been almost three years since a severe 47-hour snow shutdown at Snoqualmie Pass on Feb. 11, 2019, when a burst of four feet of snow in two days brought avalanche risks.
But it’s unusual — and maybe unprecedented — to close all four passes simultaneously for more than a few hours, effectively splitting the state into two.
“I’ve been with WSDOT for 16 years and don’t recall a time when we had all four passes closed,” said regional spokesperson Meagan Lott, on the Snoqualmie Pass twitter feed. Three passes closed for a day as an avalanche precaution in January 2009.
White Pass rarely closes, but was under extreme avalanche risk Thursday. A section of Highway 12 through the pass collapsed in a late-2015 washout and another in fall 2013, reducing travel to one lane during reconstruction.
People desperate to drive can still try Interstate 5 south to Vancouver, turn inland at Highway 14 along the north side of the Columbia River Gorge, followed by a left turn at Goldendale over Satus Pass on Highway 97, into the Yakima Valley. Even that crossing requires chains on all but four-wheel drive cars. Oregon’s Interstate 84 through the Gorge is closed.
The ports of Seattle and Tacoma report exporters from eastern Washington and beyond are not able to get their cargo to the docks.
A big share of Washington state’s average $42 million per day of trucked cargo is stymied, said Sheri Call, president and CEO of Washington Trucking Association. Typically those include perishable products, such as tankers of raw milk heading for Longview via White Pass, or Issaquah via Snoqualmie Pass, she said.
“I’m kind of likening this to a mini micro supply-chain crisis,” Call said.
The town of Cle Elum, east of Snoqualmie Pass, declared an emergency based on “an unprecedented amount of snow,” encouraging residents to stay off the roads.
Snoqualmie Pass, the lowest of the four passes at 3,022 feet above sea level, received 236 inches this season as of Jan. 3, the most in 20 years.
WSDOT said trees are falling and avalanches could cover Interstate 90 at any moment. The road-clearing team plowed and removed trees east of Hyak but stayed away from avalanche prone areas to the west, Derrey said.
Normally there are between 12 and 20 workers per shift, and the group is down “a couple” under COVID quarantines this week, she said. Some road workers quit last fall rather than obey the governor’s vaccine mandate. But the immediate problem isn’t workforce, but extreme precipitation.
“We’re kind of on pause,” Derrey said midday Thursday. “It’s too dangerous even for our avalanche crews to get in and do assessments.” State officials said heavy snowfall and near-zero visibility have overwhelmed their crews.
The National Weather Service reported visibility of only a quarter-mile Thursday morning in heavy snow at Snoqualmie Pass. Forecasts called for rain later Thursday, followed by six inches to another foot of snow there on Friday and Saturday before the sun appears Sunday.
I-90’s shutdown affects not only the summit, but a full 72 miles between North Bend and Ellensburg. A resident at Snoqualmie Pass tweeted her thanks Thursday to officials who notified neighbors of the coming storm, so they had time to buy groceries and supplies.
After the Thursday blizzards, weather forecasts call for heavy rain, which could freeze or create a dangerous layer over the softer snow. WSDOT says rainfall “will increase the avalanche issues.”
After the weather calms, state crews will need hours to cut away downed trees, perform avalanche control work such as bombarding snow with explosives, and clearing icicles from overhead signs. WSDOT has even used World War II cannons to blast unstable snow, but it’s unclear whether they’re available and practical this week.
Ski resorts at Crystal Mountain, The Summit at Snoqualmie including Alpental, and Stevens Pass said they’re closed. It’s the latest snafu in a ski season marked by bumpy schedules, as Crystal Mountain has gone back and forth on reservations, and Stevens Pass is beleaguered by customer complaints about staffing.
At I-90’s Exit 34 near North Bend, a pair of state troopers blocked the rainy eastbound freeway. About 30 truckers parked on the shoulder Thursday morning, along with others in the nearby truck stop, but few cars arrived, as WSDOT’s widespread messaging led travelers to turn around sooner, or to stay home.
Pass closures illustrate the need for more and larger truck-parking facilities in Washington state, Call said. Her group advocates a privately-operated site on I-90 but those developments provoke community opposition.
Though extreme weather caused this closure, Call said the state shouldn’t have fired highway workers who resisted Gov. Jay Inslee’s Oct. 18 vaccination mandate. Call said policy is partly to blame for previous winter shutdowns. “Most of those workers, the plow drivers, are in the vehicle by themselves,” she said. The state has blamed blockages largely on bad drivers, and spun-out trucks without chains.
Inslee mentioned in passing “we’ve had challenges with snowplow drivers,” at his routine COVID news conference Wednesday. WSDOT officials said other factors, such as a national shortage of commercially licensed drivers are more significant, and the agency is training new workers.
Despite snow and ice east of the mountains, I-82 and I-90 remained open east of Ellensburg. But many areas presented stop-and-go conditions, with chains required in steep spots.
Information from photographer Amanda Snyder and assistant features editor Trevor Lenzmeier is included in this article.
