GLACIER NATIONAL PARK — While most of Going-To-The-Sun-Road is still closed, road crews at Glacier National Park have been working hard since April to get the road ready for summer. Although the weather has been getting warmer, there is still a lot of work to do on one of Montana's most iconic highways before tourist season hits.
VIDEO - crews work to get GTSR ready:
Even with a somewhat mild winter, National Park Service work leader Christian Tranel says road crews are still facing obstacles when clearing the area.
“The main challenges that we face are the avalanche dangers and then the rock falls that we get,” Tranel said. “In Big Bend, we had a huge avalanche back in March, and so just because we got to Big Bend really fast, and then Big Bend made us slow way down because it was so deep right there.”
Clearing the road is dangerous, which is why avalanche forecasters are on hand to make sure the conditions are safe for road crews to work.
Maddey Frey, one of the forecasters, says this responsibility takes pressure off the road workers.
“They get to focus on a very dangerous task in itself, which is just plowing this road with big edges and snow,” Frey said. “Above and below, we're providing that safety for them and saying where they can or cannot go and what time they need to leave, and we're watching above them as well so that they can just focus on the task at hand as safely getting this road open as quick as possible.”
However, when the road is clear, there will be dangers to people who use it that the National Park Service advises everyone to be aware of.
“There's constantly rocks that come off of these mountains and land on the road,” Tranel said. “They need to think about that when they come up and especially if it's raining in the areas that their shoots they need to not probably hang out in those spots because that's where the rocks a lot of times fall.”
An opening day for Going-to-the-Sun Road has not yet been determined, but the scenic highway usually opens sometime in mid-June.
Click here to check the latest road conditions in Glacier National Park.
