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Blogger King |
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July 2008
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With the waves of winter storms dumping more and more snow on the mountain passes, many drivers will be sitting in traffic backups because of avalanche control work. While it may not seem like it as the freeway becomes a parking lot, I have to tell you the avalanche crews do work as fast as they can to limit closure times. We tagged along with an avalanche control crew this week on Snoqualmie Pass. We were escorted to Exit 47 on Interstate 90. We waited on the onramp as the Department of Transportation and the State Highway Patrol coordinated closing down the freeway. The second the crews got the go-ahead, we drove out onto the freeway. And within minutes the explosive guys set off the charge. Avalanche Supervisor Craig Wilbour said closing down the freeway periodically for 20 minutes beats having a natural avalanche dump snow across all lanes which could take more than two hours to clean up. And if preventing longer closures is not a good reason enough, Wilbour says, "it beats having the snow land on you." By the way, check out the video. It's pretty cool to hear the loud boom and see the mountain shake and then the snow rumbling down. 1 Comments |
"it beats having the snow land on you."
As someone who was on a probe line searching for a possible buried person at the spot shown on the clip about 10 years ago, I can testify that these are true words. Incidently a few hours later, I learned that the vehicle we were hitting with our probes was my friend's new pickup and roof was pretty dented!