An avalanche on the Icefields Parkway has shut down a section of the picturesque mountain highway between Lake Louise and the Saskatchewan River Crossing junction.
The slide on Highway 93 happened Thursday afternoon, and RCMP said it was the result of a Parks Canada avalanche control operation. No one was injured in the slide.
READ MORE: Timeline of Canada’s deadliest avalanches
The dramatic photo above was taken by an employee of the Sunwapta Falls Rocky Mountain Lodge, located further up the highway near Jasper. It shows the highway completely covered by a wall of snow over twice the height of a pickup truck.
The latest update from Alberta 511, sent out at 10 p.m. Thursday, said Alberta Transportation had “very low confidence” of the highway reopening by 6 p.m. Friday.
READ MORE: 5 things to know about avalanches
“It’s time to avoid all avalanche terrain and runouts. The hazard will remain high to extreme,” a Parks Canada online bulletin for Banff said.
The hazard rating in the Jasper region also rose to extreme for Friday, and backcountry users were advised to be extra careful.
READ MORE: Large avalanche blocks road near Revelstoke
Avalanche Canada says as the weather warms in the spring, slabs of snow on mountains become unstable as the mountains experience “melt-freeze conditions with daily swings in temperature from freezing cold nights to hot sunny afternoons.”
READ MORE: Canada’s avalanche army wages war on dangerous snow
Parks Canada and the military run avalanche control programs throughout the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and were the focus of a Global News 16×9 feature in 2014. (See below)
The highway is about 150 kilometres west of Calgary.
WATCH BELOW: Carolyn Jarvis goes onto the front line of the Snow War – as avalanche techs play a giant game of chicken – with mother nature. In the Rockies, that means bombing from helicopters, giant gas cannon fixed on the mountain face, and a full military contingent blasting howitzers.
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