They are working on opening Chinook Pass in Washington now. Yesterday 4-7-16 there was an A Star Long-Lining explosives to an Avalanche control crew on the ridge above the highway. They will remove the avalanche hazards before the snow removal equipment starts working. Their target for opening the pass is Memorial day.

My wife and I had a nice chat with one of the Washington DOT guys. He said there is 18 feet of snow at the summit. He had a lot of good stories about opening the pass in previous years and about gold mining in the area.

It was interesting as my Grandpa's brother was a miner and killed in an avalanche in the early 1900s just about 1/2 mile from where I took these photos.







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You can follow the progress on opening the pass with photos on this Washington DOT link https://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/set ... 6163103671

No TFR's shown for that area today on skyvector.com.
I did see one in the Snoq Pass area a while back for avalanche control.
I had thought that they used a mortar or similar to lob the explosives up into the areas to be avalanched.
Wondered why the TFR before, this helo business explains that.