Millions of dollars worth of commerce flow every hour on Highway One and the Canadian Pacific Rail through the Rogers Pass in B.C.
The Selkirk Mountains are legendary for steep terrain and deep powder skiing, which creates good conditions for winter skiing. But it is also the perfect conditions for massive avalanches that thunder from the tops of the mountains all the way in to the valley bottoms.
To manage avalanches from sweeping cars off the road and blocking the routes, Parks Canada, highway crews and the Canadian Army periodically close the road and rail line, and blast the avalanches with howitzers.
Howitzers are a type of cannon like devices usually used in war. The army uses massive green trucks to pull the howitzers, which look like mounted cannons. Canadian Armed Forces personnel are in Revelstoke to operate the howitzers over the winter months. The army uses massive green trucks to pull the howitzers, which look like mounted cannons.
Stoke FM News talked to Master Bombardier Tristan Fingerson of the Canadian Armed Forces. .
