DOT reopens Hatcher Pass road

(UPDATED 4:50 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2)

WASILLA — After being closed for more than a week, the Palmer-Fishhook Road in Hatcher Pass was opened by state transportation officials Wednesday evening, but avalanche forecasters are warning travelers to remain vigilant in the area this weekend.

Along with the road opening, state parks officials also opened the East Hatcher Pass Management Area to snowmachines Wednesday. The Nancy Lake State Recreation Area was reopened to snowmachines as well, according to a state parks press release. Parks officials cautioned riders that the Red Shirt Lake winter trail remains closed due to water flowing over the trail in some areas.

The Hatcher Pass road was closed Nov. 24 after a massive slide some 100-feet wide and 8-feet deep — some reports noted it as much as 14-feet deep in some areas — covered the pavement above the Archangel Road pullout. State parks officials closed the entire East Hatcher Pass Management Area to recreational users Nov. 27 after a week of warm, wet weather destabilized the snowpack.

According to the Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center, “an avalanche cycle of this magnitude has not been seen at Hatcher Pass for more than a decade.”

After clearing the initial slide, DOT crews then set to the work of clearing the road and associated pullouts and parking lots of more than a foot of snow, said DOT Mat-Su District superintendent Steve Banse. Higher elevations have received at least 6 feet of new snow.

“We’re used to clearing slides, but that (slide) was not a normal thing,” Banse said. “One foreman who has been working up there for years said he had never seen one that big.”

Although conditions have moderated, search efforts for Wasilla skier Liam Walsh remain on hold while more backcountry assessments can be done prior to sending out ground teams, according to Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters.

Walsh, a 33-year-old doctor, was last seen in the Independence Mine parking lot on Nov. 22. Trooper helicopter flights over the area last weekend revealed no sign of Walsh or any signal from an avalanche beacon, which he was reported to have been carrying. The search was later suspended due to the avalanche danger for ground crews using search and rescue dogs.

“We are still essentially in a holding pattern until it is safe enough to put ground searchers safely in the backcountry,” Peters said Thursday. “There is a lot of land to cover and at this time we do not have any indication of where in Hatcher Pass we might locate him.”

According to the avalanche center, another advisory will be issued Saturday after conditions are evaluated.

“A big thanks to everyone involved in the search for Liam Walsh in Hatcher Pass over the past seven days, including: The Alaska State Troopers, Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, Alaska Search and Rescue Dogs, Hatcher Pass Avalanche Center, Juneau Search and Rescue, Alaska State Parks, and DOT, and countless other volunteers.

Our deepest sympathy goes out to Liam’s family and friends,” forecasters wrote on the avalanche center website Tuesday.

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com