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December 21, 2015, All terrain north of I90 Closed

12/21/15
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Posted by allenat@ylor on 12/21/15 6:14am
Went to ski commonwealth today, sheriff's department said everything north of I90 is currently closed to recreational use to aid in the search for the missing skier. If you are thinking of heading there tomorrow you might want to check in with the sheriff's department and see if they are going to continue to keep the area closed. Skied Hyak instead and it was great. Many thanks to all from the sheriff's dept and S&R folks, today would not have been an easy or safe day to be out searching, best of luck.
Has this ever happened before?

Not to my knowledge, but it's been done at Paradise in recent years.

Their best bet is probably a beacon search, and failing that, tracks, neither of which are compatible with outside users. On the tracks front, new snow becomes a minor advantage.

This weekend has convinced me we're going to have to figure out how to manage searches in the presence of heavy recreational usage in the future. Accidents happen on storm days, and on storm days, skiers are most concentrated. Commonwealth was a busy place both Saturday and Sunday. This is going to happen again.

Competent recreational users with detailed terrain knowledge can be both a resource and a hindrance to the search phase. We need to figure out how to maximize the available resource that skiers in the field represent and minimize confusion while not compounding the problem. I hope to write up long-form thoughts in the coming days.

How are they enforcing this or disseminating information? Haven't seen this mentioned anywhere else. Is Alpental road closed?

author=kamtron link=topic=35155.msg144190#msg144190 date=1450738753]
Has this ever happened before?


Yes, it has.

Several times in the past they have closed Alpental Valley when either conducting SAR or a few times when the enough snow and danger was present to need to helibomb surrounding slopes.

I am hoping against hope that the missing skier is found safe, but with 24-30" since Saturday now the odds are slim.


Forgot about the heli-bombing. That day, if I recall correctly, a sheriff stood at the Commonwealth trailhead to warn people not to head toward Snoqualmie, while another sheriff restricted road access north of I-90.

We were intercepted by a sheriff walking from the summit west parking lot towards the trailhead. It would have been very helpful if information about the closure had been given to nwac and could have been put in the Avalanche bulletin. That would have allowed my party to come up with an alternate tour plan which might have involved going to a different pass.

Anyone know if they plan to open that area tomorrow to recreational users? And/or how to find more information on the rescue efforts?

Here is a link, you can use, tonight it seems a little conservative. maybe not a good day to be in the open or in traps
http://www.nwac.us/avalanche-forecast/current/cascade-west-snoqualmie-pass/


when Daniel was lost a bunch of years ago, patrol closed the bc for 2 days, then realized that a thousand nutjobs skiing every nook yelling Danny may not be such a bad idea. pretty much eliminated out to No Fog that he wasn't around in a rescue sense. found him 3 days later near Malakwa environs.
miracle

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december-21-2015-all-terrain-north-of-i90-closed
allenat@ylor
2015-12-21 14:14:24