it's feeling like spring in the valley but at Logan pass Glacier National Park road crews are still in the thick of winter snow pack the deepest seen in more than a decade according to officials currently Westside plows are working on the big drift just past Logan pass a section of the road that gets up to 80 ft of snow accumulation in the winter time Paul said East Side plow crews are just below the East Side tunnel and will soon join the Westside cruise on breaking down the big drift in about a week's Time warmer spring …

it's feeling like spring in the valley but at Logan pass Glacier National Park road crews are still in the thick of winter snow pack the deepest seen in more than a decade according to officials currently Westside plows are working on the big drift just past Logan pass a section of the road that gets up to 80 ft of snow accumulation in the winter time Paul said East Side plow crews are just below the East Side tunnel and will soon join the Westside cruise on breaking down the big drift in about a week's Time warmer spring conditions and lower elevations led to a quick start to plowing this season Paul said his crew of four plowed up to the loop before their seasonal staff arrived for the year using just one plow instead of the usual two the work got more challenging once they began the Alpine section of the road The Avalanches this year have felt sisf in Crews hurry down the road as warm afternoon temperatures cause snow to start sliding Paul said they usually have to clear Avalanches to get home they typically drive up at 6:00 a.m. and try to come down at around 2: to 2:30 p.m. but as tourists arrive for the season it can be hard to know how long it will take to get through early morning traffic on the lower sections of the Sun Road that are open to cars and cyclists plowing the big drift is Impossible by starting from the bottom so crws dig from the top Paul said they pick their way across the rock face with an excavator and dig their way down removing snow from the rock wall above so it doesn't come down on visitors at a later date he said they do this digging down until they reach the pavement driving equipment that weighs thousands of pounds on top of snow is as harrowing as it sounds occasionally throughout the plowing of the road water run off from the side of the mountain can form Cav underneath the snow this sometimes results in machines falling into large holes occasionally big enough to ins snare an entire bulldozer it's not necessarily dangerous Park officials said but it is definitely enough to make your stomach drop Paul said it's hard to quantify which sections of the road are the hardest to plow it can all be hard he added but the big drift and Rim Rock are two of the most challenging safety standards are in place though particularly for monitoring Avalanches Zachary Miller works for the US Geological Survey as a lead forecaster for the going to the Sun Road Spring snow and Avalanche program he said it's been a pretty average year on the road in terms of avalanche hazards he said getting into May the region received a variety of storms that increased Avalanche Hazard early in the month this was followed by a warming in between that also increased Avalanche Hazard and then wrapping up the month with a continued cold and wet cycle to add in more snow on top of the old solidified Base According to Miller that's causing some pretty regular Avalanches along the road but Miller said the actual Hazard this year is very similar to most years as it and flows he said officials are primarily concerned with new snow hazards in the short term or during big melting periods where water percolates through the snow pack releasing larger and deeper Avalanches Glacier National Park chief of facilities management Jim Foster said even though Valley residents saw warmer temperatures it didn't affect the snow pack at those elevations and just because they got a quick start to plowing this year it doesn't mean they wouldn't run into other obstacles along the way the going to the Sun Road opened fully for the season on June 13th and 2023 the early Rel opening since 2005 in 2022 the road opened on July 13th for more information about snow plowing operations along the going to the Sun Road visit nps.gov GAC [Music]