Page 6 - Flathead Beacon // 3.12.14

6 | MARCH 12, 2014 NEWS FLATHEADBEACON.COM

An avalanche near Essex swept into the Middle Fork Flathead River March 6. Avalanche conditions have caused the closure of U.S. Highway 2 between West Glacier and East Glacier.
GREG LINDSTROM | FLATHEAD BEACON

As Winter Wears On, ‘Avalanche Alley’ Comes Alive

BNSF Railway’s main
lanche conditions) then I’m up there.”
line closed twice within Shortly before 11:30 p.m., 12 hours
after Steiner saw the conditions change,
four days after series BNSF workers came across an avalanche
between Essex and Marias Pass cover-
of slides
ing both main line tracks with 7 feet of

snow, trees and debris. The railroad’s
By JUSTIN FRANZ of the Beacon
busy line connecting the Midwest to the
Paciic Northwest was closed.
ESSEX – Hours before the snow-
The slide was the irst of many to hit
covered mountains along Glacier Na- last week near Marias Pass, in the slide-
tional Park’s southern boundary began prone canyon known to railroaders and
to slide on March 2, Ted Steiner could locals alike as “Avalanche Alley.” Four
see it coming. From his home in White- days later, on March 6, three more ava-

ish, BNSF Railway’s avalanche safety lanches tore through the canyon, one
consultant and forecaster watched as covering a railroad snowshed and an-
the temperature in the mountains high other so large it temporarily plugged the
above John F. Stevens Canyon, just east Middle Fork of the Flathead River. The
of Essex, increased from negative 12 de- slides again closed the railroad and, for
grees to 12 above Fahrenheit in just one a time, U.S. Highway 2. Steiner, who has
hour. Meanwhile, on the canyon loor, studied slides in the canyon for nearly a

the temperature still hovered around decade, said last week’s avalanche activ- Ted Steiner, an avalanche forecaster with BNSF Railway. JUSTIN FRANZ | FLATHEAD BEACON
zero.
ity was some of the most widespread and
A moist Paciic weather system was destructive he has ever seen.
overrunning the entrenched arctic air “These were monsters,” he said. late 1800s and early 1900s, including the of road than any on the system.” Those
on the valley loor, resulting in heavy, “(But) BNSF and its predecessors, like Feb. 9, 1893 edition of The Columbian, old reports also document some of the
wet snowfall piling up on an already the Great Northern Railway, have been a now defunct Columbia Falls newspa- tragedies along the right-of-way caused
weak snowpack. Steiner got his gear, running here since 1892 and there’s al- per, which stated “the work of clearing by sudden snow slides. Steiner estimates
ired up the truck and headed for Essex.
ways been avalanche problems.”
the Great Northern track of snow is be- that between 1892 and the 1930s, more

“It was all coming together,” Steiner These avalanches are well docu- ing carried on vigorously, but the moun- than a dozen people were killed because
said later. “If I’m concerned about (ava-
mented in newspaper articles from the
tain division is proving a harder piece
of avalanches east of Essex.