LOWMAN, Idaho — There have already been nine avalanches that have reached the road in Avalanche Alley and the Idaho Transportation Department has been forced to close Highway 21 several times this winter.
Avalanche Alley is an 11-mile stretch of road going from Grandjean to Banner Summit and it is a treacherous place to work during the winter.
"There are sometimes it makes you eery," said Turk Shaffer, a snow plow driver that let us ride with him through Avalanche Alley. "But, we have an avalanche crew that comes up here and they keep a pretty good eye on us."
Every member of the crew takes an avalanche course every fall and there is also a team monitoring the conditions above Highway 21. This stretch of road is one of three roads in the United States in the high risk category according to the Avalanche-Hazard Index.
The other roads include Little Cottonwood Canyon on SH-210 in Utah, that takes people from Salt Lake City up to Snowbird and Alta ski resorts. The other is the Million Dollar Highway connecting Ouray to Silverton on Highway 550 in Colorado.
"We have some of the best forecasters in the country, if not the entire country," said Randy Gehrke, the foreman who manages Highway 21 from Lucky Peak through Avalanche Alley. "We really listen to what they give us, what their forecast is and they are really good. They don’t put us in any kind of danger."
However, drivers run plows all day and night — even during the last two weeks, when there hasn't been any new snow to cause avalanches.
Everyone that goes into this area wears an avalanche beacon that gets tested before they leave the headquarters in Lowman.
Plows can take care of avalanches that cover the road with four to five feet of snow, but when the large avalanches happen they bring out what they call the deerhunter, a loader with a huge rotary that throws snow. Gehrke told us the biggest avalanche he has ever seen happened during Snowmageddon in 2017.
"We had a slide come off one side and off the other and they met in the middle, it was 80 feet tall," said Gehrke. "A lot of times the public doesn’t understand why the road is closed so it is kind of nice for them to see the footage of what we deal with."
The public needs to know there is no stopping in Avalanche Alley during the winter, but if something happens ITD advises people to stay in their vehicle, and if they can, drive to one of the green signs which indicates a spot with less risk.
Randy and Turk both live in Lowman and despite working in such a dynamic environment they both love their jobs, as they do everything they can to keep the road that connects Boise to Lowman to Stanley and beyond open during the winter.
"It’s amazing, we have fun in this area especially when there are avalanches," said Shaffer. "It makes our day amazing because we are trying to get the road open and we know it makes a difference."
People are also reminded to give plows plenty of room as there have been several accidents with vehicles hitting plows in Idaho so far this winter.
