Crews are in their fifth week of working to reopen the North Cascades Scenic Highway. State crews this week reported encountering seven-and-a-half feet of snow on Rainy Pass.

The Washington State Department of Transportation said they’ll be bringing in an excavator to knock down the snow before a blower can move in to clear the roadway.

All that should take another week and then crews will turn to repairing winter damage to the Highway-20 roadway on the scenic pass, WA State Dept. of Transportation said.

The department added that they don’t yet have an estimated date for reopening the pass.

The pass was reopened the last day of May last year. Not until mid-June the year before.