CHINOOK PASS, Wash. (AP) — Rock, paper, scissors. It’s how John Stimberis and his crew decide who lays the charges and who attaches the detonator cord.
It’s a light-hearted moment in the otherwise dangerous daily business of avalanche control at Chinook Pass.
The Yakima Herald-Republic reports that the crew of avalanche forecasters spends four days a week on the high-elevation slopes above the pass, triggering avalanches to make snow removal safer for road crews working to open the 5,430-foot mountain pass.
They often ski a thousand feet or more up the steep slopes above the highway, which is buried in as much as 20 feet of snow.
