Winter highways west/south from Bend (Eugene, Medford: gated, versus, trailer)

[Pughnose]

How often and for how long are highways closed near Bend and Redmond in the winter, limiting travel to the Medford area? Map says that 20 & 126 would get me to Eugene for I-5 south, which is the long way around. Shorter (weather permitting) would be 97 south, then cut west through Prospect or through Lake of the Woods.

Are some of these highways often closed unexpectedly (or seasonally) during snow season? What would be a realistic travel time around Christmas? (Google maps gives me an estimated drive of 5 hours through Eugene and as little as 4 hours through LotW, but this is June....) Thanks!

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Closures in winter would most likely be due to rock slides. Short closures occassionally happen due to traffic accidents. Summer closures are occassionally rock slides, but sometimes due to wildfire.

Highways are moderately well plowed, not gritted very well. Big danger of winter driving is other drivers on the road who don't know how to drive on ice and snow.

[PNW-type-gal]

The plateau on Hwy 97 (where all the lodgepole pine are, from Chemult through to the big hill just north of Chiloquin) can get some pretty heavy snow in winter, but it is mostly a storm-related thing. ODOT does a fairly good job keeping it clear, although some of the sections get cut down to one lane in each direction.

You need to keep one eye on the weather report and one eye on the calendar for the easiest trip. Hwy 140 over Lake of the Woods and Hwy 62 through Diamond Lake, Crater Lake and Prospect are not as well cleared as Hwy 97. ODOT uses whatever that salt alternative is (magnesium chloride?) - doing 5 trips in one winter over Lake of the Woods completely ate the wheel bearing seal on my trailer.

[Thom52]

Seems like the biggest issue you would run into doing this as a commute would be ice, based on my occasional driving South of Bend in Winter.
That could be pretty easily mitigated by having a good set of dedicated Winter Tires. (studs vs studless is an endless debate). And watching for oncoming cars and trucks sliding sideways towards you, or just California plates in general in the winter.

But closures in and out of Central Oregon seem rare to me, because I am coming from Western WA, where the passes close many times during the winter for "avalanche control" or "too many vehicles spinning out". I was tracking the comparison before we moved to Central Oregon and it was about a 10 to 1 ratio of W WA versus C OR.