simultaneously cloaking and choking the Cascades. Ironically enough, given the huge snow levels over the past few days (as well as couple weeks), I elected not to go riding this weekend. The reasons?

Well, they were legion.

A avalanche forecast that's been weaving between high and extreme danger like a drunk lift op for the last 10 days. No back country for me.

Extra juicy: yesterday the NWAC forecast called out the possibility of historic slides:

Some very large and infrequently active paths have released during
this avalanche cycle. Some paths have slid for the first
time in twenty five years and avalanches have crossed all
the major Washington passes. All the Washington Cascade
passes (Snoqualmie, Stevens, and White) as well as the Mt Baker highway and Mt Rainier NP
remain closed as of early Saturday.

Examples would include:

A slide at Alpental, maybe the Phantom Coulour, that ran past the condo's into the first row of parked cars, knocking mini-vans around. Irony Supplement: The slides deposition zone, where the debris forming the slide is deposited, is right over the top of Alpental's BCA Beacon Practice Area.

A slide over in Leavenworth that took out a house on a golf course. Scroll down for now-ya-see-it, now-ya-don't shots!

One thing of interest I did find doing "research" for this, or more accurately looking at snow porn-images and text depicting water vapor crystallizing while airborne in a prurient fashion-is the WSDOT blog and Flickr account.

It's been a hairball winter for sure, and the slides depicted bring that home.

To most, that probably seems less than titillating, but seeing as how it allows a peek behind the scenes at the states Cascade Passes conditions, I figured there probably at least one person out there who'd get off on it, so to speak.

Complicating the lift accessed scene, I-90's been closed more than its been open over the last 2 weeks, Hwy. 2 Stevens has been closed since Thursday night, 542 was closed Saturday with a determination about Sunday posted at 4:50 something this morning. All this mapped to Crystal being packed today as well, and sleeping in became a viable option. So, being a man of action, I did so.

Given our La Nina winter and the epic snow fall it's brought, perhaps all this mayhem (and lack of access to the mountains we love) begs the question, is it possible to have to much of a good thing?