Chinook Pass Temp Closure

Surprisingly, it appears Chinook Pass will stay closed for the weekend. I thought they would either close it for the year or get it back open today.

Shoot... onto plan C.

I'm a bit puzzled by this as well. I would have thought there would be an effort to get it open with only a bit of snow in the forecast and a holiday weekend approaching. If it's closed for the season they should just say it.

Every WSDOT snow and avalanche employee that I've interacted with has been extremely professional and gotten a ton of work done at very low cost. If the pass is closed, I'd guess there's a reason.

If it's as simple as a few plow passes, I bet Chinook would be open.

At Twin Lakes Sunday, the slides that had hit the road at 4k were deep and full of rocks. 410's blowdowns were cleared impressively fast; there may be more of them at Chinook, too. Highway 2's outage may also be consuming crew resources somehow.

Charlie,
I wasn't trying to imply WSDOT was dragging their feet. I was more wondering why they hadn't closed the pass for the season or given a bit more info on an expected opening.

I'd agree that WSDOT has a great track record of safety and getting work done quickly, but even if their resources are well managed, more transparency isn't a bad thing. A "guess reopening date - pending further snowfall" would be useful, but the small percentage of folks who use the pass make the cost/benefit factor a big issue.

www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2015/11/24_Chinook...osedForTheSeason.htm