Breaking News -- Highway 20 is Open

The American Alpine Institute just received the following email from the Washington State Department of Transportation:

• The gates near Diablo and Mazama swung open at 3 p.m. this afternoon allowing you to travel between the Skagit and Methow Valleys for the first time in 5 days. Yesterday, our avalanche crew found a large slide, blockingthe highway below Liberty #3. Heavy, wet snow, large rocks and tree debriscovered 200-feet of the highway to a depth of 25 to 35 feet. Our crews cleared the slides, repaired a sinkhole and cleared about a half dozen clogged culverts where avalanche chutes released and dumped snow and rocks on the shoulders. Photos of the slide and sinkhole can be viewed on the WSDOT flickr web site: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157605163524499/
  

• The snow has stabilized and weather forecasts don’t suggest any conditions that would close the highway for the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. It just might actually get to be spring!