Canadian artillery returns to the mountains of B.C. amid deadly 2023 avalanche season
CTV
At the close of an unusually deadly year for avalanches in the British Columbia backcountry, the Canadian military is mounting another winter offensive in its six-decade war against ice and snow.
In the high mountain passes of southeastern British Columbia, the Canadian military is mounting another winter offensive in its six-decade war against ice and snow. This year's campaign comes at the close of an unusually deadly 2023 avalanche season in the western Canadian backcountry.
The latest troop of artillery gunners arrived in Glacier National Park in mid-November with three 105-mm Howitzer field guns trained on the narrow valley walls overlooking the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway.
The soldiers will remain on the deployment into the new year when another rotation of troops will continue the work until the fight is abandoned in late March or early April.
Canada's longest-running military operation began in 1961, the year before the Trans-Canada Highway fully opened.
Every year since, dozens of soldiers and Parks Canada avalanche forecasters have trekked out to the area northeast of Revelstoke, B.C., to participate in Operation Palaci, the world's largest mobile avalanche-control program.
During a rotation change, there can be up to 50 Canadian Armed Forces members at the operation's main mountain compound, an apartment-style complex that provides food and lodging for the mission.
From there, the soldiers set out to staff the guns from 18 designated firing positions, primarily located in Rogers Pass, where the road and rail snake through the Selkirk Mountains in the most avalanche-prone travel corridor in North America.
