[RichP]

Across from Resort Creek Pond on NF 4832 a trail heads up to the point overlooking I-90 above where a snowshed covered the freeway for 64 years. It was removed in April 2014 but some of the devices used for avalanche control are still present on top which is informally called "Snowshed Head." Platforms, cables and winches line the top of the ridge. How they were used is unclear to me so if anybody knows the process, please post here. I assume explosives were manually lowered by cable to where snow accumulated and detonated. I tried coming up last year but the area was under a wildlife closure until Aug 20 of this year.

One of several platforms

To the western summit

On the western summit

Snowshed Head

[puzzlr]

Cool discovery Richard! Did you know this was there?

[RichP]

I had seen this report at some time in the past but forgot about the "artifacts" on top. It's one of those points you can see every time you cross the pass so I've been wanting to visit. https://www.yellowleaf.org/scramble/g/r/2008-03-02-snowshed.html

[fourteen410]

I was up there last summer and wondered the same thing. Although isn't that area closed now because of the new wildlife corridor?

[RichP]

[pipedream]

Pre-wildlife closure we jokingly referred to that zone as the "tits" because the view is "tits" from up there for how little effort you expend to get to it and because from across the valley on the way down from Silver Peak it looks like the profile view of a pair of knockers. It was a favorite lazy afternoon hammock spot of mine - just go up there to get away from it all, drink some cold ones and read a book. I believe those avalanche control mechanisms are still used, albeit rarely, these days as the new bridge over the avalanche paths those were used to control is typically sufficient. But when a lot of snow builds up in the late winter, WSDOT will close the highway east of the summit and go up there via snowcat and detonate explosives. The bombs themselves are typically 40lb bags of ANFO that are clipped to the cables, lowered via the crank mechanism and then detonated roughly a meter above the snow surface (this is the technique they invented at Alpental in the 90s and it's now used worldwide). Of course, those platforms aren't very high above the snow level, if at all, when they're used. There are similar platforms and cables near the radio tower at the top of Summit West. They get considerably more use during the winter to knock snow down above EB I-90 (it's typically caught behind the wall above the freeway). Sadly, the tank has been removed - that was a favorite safety meeting location during ski season. If you feel like adventuring further afield, you can find similar "bomb trams" along the FS road that heads downhill from the outlet of Rockdale Lake below the slopes of Radio Mtn. That one has one of the stationary bicycles they use to "pedal" the clipped on bags of explosives uphill, like the ones along the highway just west of the summits of Snoqualmie & Stevens passes