Major snowstorm brings crowds, closures and chaos to Cascades ski resorts
Powder rush brings crowds, closures and chaos to Cascades ski areas
Feet of fresh snow drew massive crowds of skiers and snowboarders to Washington’s Cascade resorts, but the surge also led to road closures, abandoned vehicles and long delays. Officials say strong winds, power outages and avalanche danger forced shutdowns at some resorts while transportation crews struggled to keep highways clear.
SEATTLE - A powerful winter storm that dumped feet of snow across Washington’s Cascades brought massive crowds of skiers and snowboarders to mountain resorts this weekend, but the rush also led to road closures, abandoned vehicles and hours-long delays.
Across several ski areas, strong winds, power outages and avalanche danger complicated operations while transportation crews struggled to keep mountain highways clear.
Crystal Mountain: Storm forces 48-hour shutdown
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At Crystal Mountain Resort, officials shut down operations for nearly two full days as dangerous conditions swept through the area.
High winds, intermittent power outages and avalanche control work forced the resort to close Friday and Saturday.
"We knew a storm was coming, a big one," said Crystal Mountain spokesperson Linnea Hansen.
Hansen said wind gusts reached as high as 80 mph at the mountaintop early in the storm, making it unsafe to operate lifts or conduct avalanche mitigation work.
The resort received about 62 inches of snow at mid-mountain during the storm cycle, with 52 inches falling between Wednesday and Saturday morning.
"We had a lot of work to do that would have delayed an opening," Hansen said, emphasizing that safety was the top priority.
The closure didn’t stop some visitors from trying to reach the resort.
Video captured on Sunday by skier Jaki Portolese shows drivers in Enumclaw bypassing barriers meant to block State Route 410. Portolese said hundreds of vehicles ignored the closure, at times swerving into oncoming lanes to get through.
Meanwhile, transportation crews dealt with extensive storm damage.
"Over the weekend, we had over a hundred trees fall onto the roadway or get intertwined with the power lines there," said Tina Werner, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Transportation.
At times, conditions were too dangerous for crews to remove the trees immediately, delaying the reopening of the highway.
Despite rumors circulating online, Hansen said Crystal Mountain did not evacuate the resort during the storm.
Stevens Pass: Abandoned cars block plows
Further north at Stevens Pass, transportation officials faced another problem vehicles left directly on U.S. Highway 2.
In some cases, drivers abandoned their cars in the roadway, preventing plows from clearing snow.
"It’s also pretty frustrating for our crews as well as other travelers when folks are just parked in the middle of U.S. 2," said Werner.
WSDOT even publicly called out some drivers on social media after photos showed vehicles stopped in travel lanes, blocking snow removal equipment.
One driver later acknowledged their role in the chaos on Reddit, posting that they had driven a limousine up the highway and admitted it was a mistake not to turn around sooner.
The storm also created hazardous working conditions for road crews. At one point, a tree crashed through the windshield of a plow truck while crews were trying to keep the highway open.
Snoqualmie Pass: Record demand and long lines
While Crystal Mountain remained closed, many skiers shifted their plans to Snoqualmie Pass creating unprecedented demand once Interstate 90 reopened.
Portolese said she headed to Alpental on Saturday and found traffic backed up all the way to the freeway exit. Telling FOX 13, by that time Alpental was not even open yet.
Earlier in the weekend, Portolese said she and friends had left Seattle at 5 a.m. Friday hoping to reach Crystal Mountain before State Route 410 closed.
Instead, they and many others ended up waiting in Enumclaw for hours in hopes the road would reopen.
"A lot of people drove up the road and sat in the line for hours hoping it would re-open," she said.
The sudden influx of stranded skiers overwhelmed some small businesses in town.
Portolese said a worker at the Kettle Cafe struggled to seat customers because a colleague couldn’t get to work due to traffic congestion. At a nearby McDonald’s, a Reddit user even organized what she described as a "support group" for skiers waiting out the closure.
Some visitors ultimately gave up and drove several hours farther south to White Pass instead.
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The Source: Information in this story comes from original reporting by FOX 13 Seattle reporter Lauren Donovan.