Tester tours progress in Glacier

Upper McDonald Creek was running high and muddy, a sure sign of a fast and furious snow melt in Glacier National Park.

But Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., found a different world farther up Going-to-the-Sun Road Saturday, where snowplows are still cutting through deep snow to reach Logan Pass.

Tester was the first senator in recent memory to participate in the annual spring road-clearing effort, and he did so literally, taking the controls of a rotary plow for a short run and bringing donuts for the plow crew.

"I'm envious of your job location," Tester told the crew.

He congratulated them on this year's work, and recognized the extra efforts to repair storm damage from last fall.

"It's not work without danger, either," Tester said, referring to the crew's exposure to avalanche danger. "I think it's important to know about the challenges these guys face … Anytime your dealing with Mother Nature, you got to hope it's being helpful, and today it is being helpful."

Crews were working under a sunny sky and warm temperatures that have accelerated road clearing work in recent days. May is historically a tricky month on Sun Road, a time when the weather can turn on dime, setting back progress considerably.

But pioneer plows are now past Oberlin Bend, cutting an initial path over Logan Pass, while a front-end loader and the rotary plow follow behind.

Sean Bessinger, the park's roads foreman, said the melt-out has helped with snow plowing, but the crew has been slowed up by debris slides from last November's heavy rainstorm. The largest of the slides was just above Triple Arches area, where the crew spent more than three days clearing out 1,500 cubic yards of crumbled rock and boulders, Bessinger said.

Near the Rimrocks area just below Oberlin Bend, "there was a huge amount of debris," he said. "We probably would have been at the pass three days ago if we didn't run into that pile."

Next week, the crew is likely to start work on the infamous Big Drift, easily the deepest section of snow on the road.

"It's menacing, just like it always is," said Bessinger, who estimates the Big Drift is at least 70 feet deep this year.

East of the pass, meanwhile, Sandry Construction of Kalispell has been working on repairing four areas on the road that were badly damaged by the November storm, the worst being a 100-foot stretch of road where both lanes were completely washed away.

The park has a temporary bridge standing by at Rising Sun to be installed over the gap. But John Kilpatrick, Glacier's facilities chief, said there is a possibility that the bridge may not be needed.

"Now we think, and Sandry thinks, that we have a small window of time where we might be able to do a permanent fix on that 100-foot gap," Kilpatrick said.

The rapid melt-out has allowed the repair work to proceed faster than expected just weeks ago, he added.

Kilpatrick said the park has secured $6.2 million in emergency funding to pay for all road repairs over a two-year period, with most of the work to be finished this year. And the park is authorized to proceed with the first major phase of a long-term reconstruction project this summer. That work will concentrate on a three-mile section of road between the West Tunnel and Haystack Creek.

Kilpatrick said he and other park officials were glad to give Tester a comprehensive rundown on the construction and repair work, along with the park's enhanced transit system that will go online this summer.

Soon after getting behind the wheel, Tester drove the machine into a rock hidden in the snow, breaking a sheer pin on the safety.

Tester, a lifelong farmer familiar with heavy machinery and sheer pins, watched intently and asked questions as park mechanic Joe Bachurski quickly replaced the pin.

"It's definitely an impressive piece of equipment," Tester said. "And it's impressive work that these guys do."

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com