Work crews have nearly cleared Going to the Sun Road
Snow removal teams work near Logan Pass in Glacier National Park Thursday. Snow levels are low, but the park has not yet set an opening date for the Going to the Sun Road. (Jeremy Weber photo)
A park excavator works on a 40-foot drift on the east side of the Going to Sun Road near Logan Pass Thursday. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Snow removal teams work near Logan Pass in Glacier National Park Thursday. Snow levels are low, but the park has not yet set an opening date for the Going to the Sun Road. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Glacier National Park snowplow teams have nearly finished clearing the area around Logan Pass. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Snow removal teams work near Logan Pass in Glacier National Park Thursday. Snow levels are low, but the park has not yet set an opening date for the Going to the Sun Road. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Despite heavy snowfall this winter, there is little snow remaining near Logan pass in Glacier National Park. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Glacier National Park road crews are hard at work preparing the Going to the Sun Road for vehicle traffic. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Crews work to install removeable side barriers on the Going to the Sun road Thursday. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Snow removal teams work near Logan Pass in Glacier National Park Thursday. Snow levels are low, but the park has not yet set an opening date for the Going to the Sun Road. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Snow removal teams work near Logan Pass in Glacier National Park Thursday. Snow levels are low, but the park has not yet set an opening date for the Going to the Sun Road. (Jeremy Weber photo)
West Lakes Road Work Leader Brian Paul takes a break from working along the Big Drift just west of Logan Pass in Glacier National Park Thursday. (Jeremy Weber photo)
Glacier Park plows crews from the east and west sides of Logan Pass met at Big Drift Thursday afternoon, making the first clear path across the extent of the Going to the Sun Road.
While there is still considerable work to be done before the pass can be opened to vehicle traffic, it is a good sign that the work is nearing completion.
“There is still a significant amount of work to do, even after we have reached this point, to get ready to open this area to tourists,” Park Facilities Manager John Lucke said. “Weather is the key to everything up here. That determines our timeline more than anything else. We only assist in opening the road, it’s Mother Nature who sets the pace.”
So far this season, Mother Nature has set an accelerated pace, with record snowfall melting at an increased rate.
“Most of this winter was characterized by above-average snowfall. Around the region, it was anywhere between 135-165 percent of normal, so well above average. Once we hit May, we hit a period of well above normal temperatures and well below average precipitation. That helped us. It really made that snowpack disappear quickly,” USGS physical scientist Erich Peitzsch said.
According to Peitzsch and Lucke, avalanches – which are usually a problem to snow removal teams on the Going to the Sun Road – were not really an issue this year. There were avalanches, including some that did damage to the historic rock walls along the roadway, but those avalanches did not affect or slow down the plowing crews.
“We couldn’t have asked for better weather. The avalanches that we have encountered came down before we started working,” Lucke said. “They are slower to clean up because we have to use the loader because of the trees in the slide.”
According to West Lakes Road Work Leader Brian Paul, the deepest drift his crews had to clear this season was 40-45 feet, the final Big Drift.
The Big Drift is a massive drift of snow that covers the highway just east of Logan Pass. Last year, it was about 70 to 90 feet deep. It usually takes about a week to get through it and is the last big obstacle in clearing the highway each spring, but the warm temperatures and low precipitation levels sped things up this season.
Still, the work is not easy.
“It’s nerve-racking work. It’s a slow process. Patience and experience is what you need to do this kind of work,” Paul said. “We do this work with crews of only 12 workers on each side of the pass. That seems like a small number, but you can only fit so many machines on this road at a time.
Crews are also busy putting up removable guardrails. The Park has gone to the rails in more and more alpine sections of the road. They have an advantage because they can unbolt them in the fall, store them in a location safe from avalanches and then put them back up in the spring. It helps save the road from harm, but it’s also a labor-intensive process. Road Supervisor for the West Side, Stan Stahr, estimates there are now more than 425 sections of the railing that have to be installed along the road.
While the Park is not yet sure when the Going to the Sun Road will open for the season, it’s a safe bet that the opening date will not break any records. The earliest opening date for the road was May 16 in 1987, while the latest opening (not affected by minimal staffing) was July 2, in 2008 and 2014.