Avalanche Closes Highway 97 North

By 250 News

Avalanche site denoted by exclamation on map           courtesy DriveBC

Prince George, B.C. -  While there are few details available, the Ministry of Transportation is reporting on its DriveBC website that an avalanche has closed Highway 97 in both directions, approximately 71-kilometres north of the junction with Highway 39 to Mackenzie.

Road conditions on the site are updated by the road maintenance contractor responsible, and the avalanche was reported at 10:23pm Sunday evening.

There is no word on when the route may be re-opened.

The avalanche occurred further north, passed the junction with the access road to Powder King ski resort, so skiers heading to and from the resort on the Prince George side would not be impacted.  A posting on Powder King's website says the Daylodge and Hostel Services are remaining open to accomodate travellers who have been cut off from Chetwynd by the slide.

DriveBC maintains a webcam of Highway 97 at the turn-off to the ski hill.  The image at right is from that camera which looks north and shows the snowy conditions on the highway this evening.

Environment Canada is calling for between 10- and 15-centimetres of snow to fall in the Pine Pass overnight.

The incident is also about seven-kilometres beyond the ongoing construction site in the pass, where a 'construction update' on the ministry's website says there may be traffic delays due to blasting operations at that site.

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