The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) said Monday (Nov. 24) that the North Cascades Highway is closed for the winter.
WSDOT temporarily closed Highway 20 at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday (Nov. 23) due to heavy snowfall and a snow slide in the Liberty Bell zone east of Washington Pass. After Monday’s assessment by maintenance and avalanche technicians who found more slides, WSDOT determined it could not safely keep the North Cascades Highway open.
“Any more snow will pack those avalanche chutes, and we’d be putting the public and our crews at risk if we tried to keep the road open any longer,” said Twisp Maintenance Supervisor Don Becker in a press release. More snow at high elevations is forecast through the Thanksgiving holiday period.
Slides below the Liberty Bell avalanche chutes, just east of 5,477-foot Washington Pass, started dumping snow onto the highway Sunday morning, WSDOT said. By Monday morning, two more slides had dumped snow across the highway.
Last year, WSDOT closed the North Cascades Highway for the season on Dec. 3. Last spring, the highway reopened May 8.
