Cascades avy danger at 20-year high

[boardman]

From Accuweather's Ken Clark:

Avalanche Danger at 20-Year High
Saturday, February 09, 2008

The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center in Seattle, Washington issued an avalanche warning from Friday night through Saturday for the Washington and northern Oregon Cascades. They are calling this an EXTREME avalanche danger.

The combination of 3 to 6 feet of snow in the past four days, additional snow falling, and warming taking place will cause widespread natural avalanches with large, destructive slides. They go on to say that a slide recently covered the Alpental road and burief some cars in the Alpental ski lot as evacuation of the ski resort was underway. Also a slide east of Stevens Pass along Highway 2 covered the road with up to 18 feet of snow. They are saying this may be the greatest avalanche danger the Northwest has seen in 20 years or more.

This is a warning to all headed into the Cascades. Backcountry travelers need to be aware of the danger and act accordingly. Backcountry activity in the Avalanche danger zone is risky, at best.

[Ispoiler]

The parking lot at Apental is set very far back from slide paths, this says something to how far slides can run! Did they happen to mention from what direction the slides were coming from? From the snow lake side would be my guess, but if they started on the resort side it would be truly mindblowing.

[Affix Snow]

YIKES!!!!

My guess is the slides were on the snow lake side....

[PWDR8S]

Wow.... probably a good thing I cancelled my biz trip out there(Seattle and beyond) this week. I was planning on some BC adventuring but with the avalanche dangers so high, I'm happy I didn't go this time.

There IS such a thing as too much snow!

[pulverschwein]

Yo Bannick - where da Baker report at dood? Me rents were out visiting bro in Bellingham last week and said they got three foots overnight. Looks like the base at Heather Meadows went from like 130 to 190 inches in a week and a half.

They also had a nightmare 10 hour drive to Big White (instead of the usual 4.5 hrs) due to pass closures.

Hope Bannick and bride are safe, with tired legs and faces hurting from grinning ear-to-ear for a week.

C'mon dood, share the wealth - I told y'all about my adventures at Mountain Creek. . .

[Bannick]

Originally Posted by pulverschwein

Yo Bannick - where da Baker report at dood? Me rents were out visiting bro in Bellingham last week and said they got three foots overnight. Looks like the base at Heather Meadows went from like 130 to 190 inches in a week and a half.

They also had a nightmare 10 hour drive to Big White (instead of the usual 4.5 hrs) due to pass closures.

Hope Bannick and bride are safe, with tired legs and faces hurting from grinning ear-to-ear for a week.

C'mon dood, share the wealth - I told y'all about my adventures at Mountain Creek. . .

We are alive...back in Seattle this week....it was the most snow I have ever seen. Day one was only 2" overnight after like 60" the week before....mid day monday the snow started. I think it ended up being somewhere around 40" total by Friday morning, our last day but when you factor in wind transport it was over my head in places. On tuesday they only ran chair 5 as the winds were crazy. It was socked in and beautiful and kept the crowds away.

The patrolers were basically forbidding people from going OB off the hemispheres and the arm. I had never seen them so jumpy. The had patrolers with radios watching for rope duckers and were pulling tickets at the bottom.

Closed the road up a mile from our cabin on Friday night due to avalanche danger....it slid early morning burying the road. Baker was closed on Sat but reopened for the banked slalom finals on Sun.

More details with limited pics soon.

Yes we are grinning and you bet we are sore....off to the ocean today.