The Big Drift as seen on March 23, 2006

The Big Drift is an area along the Going-to-the-Sun Road where a large amount of winter snow can accumulate to depths in excess of 100 feet (30.5 m). Located immediately east of Logan Pass in Glacier National Park, the westerly winds push snow over the crest of the Continental divide onto the eastern flank of a long arete which extends south from Pollock Mountain. West of the divide, this arete is known as the Garden Wall. Going to the Sun Road with Going to the Sun Mountain Going-to-the-Sun Road is the main parkway through the heart of Glacier National Park in Montana. ... Mount Reynolds at Logan Pass Logan Pass is located along the Continental Divide in Glacier National Park, in the U.S. state of Montana. ... Glacier National Park is located in the U.S. state of Montana, on the international border with the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. ... A continental divide is a line of elevated terrain which forms a border between two watersheds such that water falling on one side of the line eventually travels to one ocean or body of water, and water on the other side travels to another, generally on the opposite side of... Arete (Greek: Αρετή) can refer to several different concepts, people, and things: Arete is an Ancient Greek word, meaning excellence. Arete became more specific when applied to moral character, and is normally translated as virtue. ...

As spring approaches, the region is surveyed by helicopter in preparation for snow removal that will be needed in order to reopen the Going-to-the-Sun Road for the summer season. By early April, snow removal crews working from either end of the 53 mile (85 km) roadway have begun to ascend the steeper east and west slopes of the Lewis Range. The area of the Big Drift is usually reached by late May, and oftentimes can take a month to clear this one stretch of road that is slightly more than 1 mile (1.6 km) in length. Survey crews identify avalanche hazards and help to locate the road using global positioning equipment. Large cornices are usually removed using explosives, then excavators and front-end loaders move the snow over the cliffsides or into dump trucks. The entire Going-to-the-Sun Road takes about ten weeks to plow, even with equipment that can move 4000 tons of snow an hour. By the first of June of each year, the Logan Pass visitor center can usually be reached by vehicle from at least one side of the Continental divide. A Himalayan avalanche. ... GPS satellite in orbit, image courtesy NASA GPS redirects here. ... An example of a cornice along the top of a building in Wheeling, West Virginia. ... A tracked excavator by Daewoo. ... A loader clearing a landslide. ... A dump truck or production truck is a truck used for transporting loose material (such as sand, gravel, or dirt) for construction. ...

External links

• Glacier National Park. What's up with the Going-to-the-Sun Road. National Park Service. URL accessed on 2006-04-28.
• USGS Logan Pass Quad. Topozone. URL accessed on 2006-04-28.