Snoqualmie Pass chain checks, November 3–4: I-90, mileposts 32–101

Daily edition · Checkpoint schedule — Snoqualmie Pass, Washington

Published November 3, 2026 · TruckRescueNow daily edition — Day 2

Two days of chain checks start today

Today and tomorrow, November 3–4, the Washington State Patrol runs a commercial-vehicle chain enforcement emphasis on I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass.

The patrolled ground is the pass corridor itself: North Bend, milepost 32, to Ellensburg, milepost 101 — plus the other posted carry routes on WSP's list.

Troopers will educate and enforce, in their words, and WSP posts the results after the emphasis ends. Day 1 is today: the check is not coming, it is on.

Morning Coffee Brief

The carry rule being checked: from November 1 to April 1, vehicles over 10,000 pounds GVW must carry tire chains on I-90 over Snoqualmie Pass — at least two extra chains — whether or not the road is asking for them.
The last time WSP ran this two-day emphasis, in November 2024, troopers inspected 146 commercial vehicles and found 64 chain violations — about 44%. Nearly half the trucks checked were not carrying what the rule requires.
This morning the pass itself is calm: WSDOT reports I-90 open in both directions, bare and dry, no restrictions, 37 degrees at the 3,022-foot summit. The emphasis runs anyway. That is the whole lesson of this item.

A driver at a truck-stop window with breakfast and coffee in front of him, looking out at the trucks

The rule being checked

What the emphasis enforces is a carry rule, not a weather call:

Must-carry season: November 1 through April 1, for vehicles over 10,000 pounds GVW.
At least two extra chains, carried in the truck — chains mounted for a storm are a different rule, and this patrol is not waiting for a storm.
The I-90 stretch covered runs North Bend (milepost 32) to Ellensburg (milepost 101); the other listed state routes carry the same requirement.
Being stopped short on chains means being stopped, ticketed, and kept off the pass — the load's schedule ends at the trooper's window.

A dry pass is not a pass

Drivers get this rule wrong in one specific way: they read the road instead of the calendar. This morning Snoqualmie is bare and dry, with no restrictions in either direction — and none of that touches the carry rule.

The November 2024 benchmark shows how common the mistake is: 146 trucks inspected over two days, 64 in violation. Those drivers were not caught by a storm. They were caught by a rule that never depended on one.

So the check before this corridor is a box check, not a forecast check: two extra chains, in the truck, before milepost 32.

Stopped or stuck on the pass ground

There is no chain stop over the pass itself between North Bend and Ellensburg — the corridor's service ground sits at its two ends, which is why a problem mid-pass is a longer problem.

At the east end, Ellensburg's Exit 106 cluster (Love's, 85 spaces, and the ONE9 lot at Exit 109, 100 public spaces) is where pass traffic collects, and where the corridor's repair and towing bench stages from.

For help on that end, semi truck roadside service and towing in Ellensburg, at the east end of Snoqualmie Pass on I-90 is the corridor page. The cold-weather half of the preparation is the winter breakdown kit — what a night stopped above 3,000 feet asks for.