Operation PALACI

Operation PALACI is the Canadian Armed Forces' contribution to Parks Canada's avalanche-control program in Rogers Pass, where the Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway cross the Selkirk Mountains in British Columbia. Its objective is to prevent uncontrolled, naturally occurring avalanches, and thus prevent blockage of the essential road and rail links between coastal British Columbia and the rest of Canada.

Operation PALACI is conducted under a Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of National Defence and Parks Canada, which has jurisdiction over Rogers Pass because it lies within the boundaries of Glacier National Park.

The task force

The task force deployed on Operation PALACI is provided by the Regular and Reserve Force regiments of the Royal Canadian Artillery, a combat arms branch of the Canadian Army. Operational command, control and coordination are provided by Joint Task Force Pacific Headquarters in Esquimalt, British Columbia.

Every year, from November to April, the artillery task force is deployed in Rogers Pass with 105-mm howitzers modified for precision firing from roadside gun platforms.

Mission context

The threat

The Trans-Canada Highway and the Canadian Pacific Railway use Rogers Pass as a shortcut across the "Big Bend" of the Columbia River between Revelstoke and Donald, British Columbia. With an elevation of 1,330 metres and an average annual snow accumulation of 12 metres, Rogers Pass is the site of frequent avalanches between 1885 and 1916, avalanches in the area took the lives of more than 250 railway workers. Today, Rogers Pass contains more than 130 avalanche paths intersecting the Trans-Canada Highway, which therefore holds the highest avalanche rating of arterial roads in North America.

The mission

For more than 50 years, the Royal Canadian Artillery has provided the key component of the world's largest mobile avalanche-control program.

Parks Canada scientists monitor and evaluate the snow conditions in Rogers Pass to predict when and where avalanches are most likely to occur. When a potential avalanche is identified, the co-ordinates are communicated to the artillery task force.

Gun detachments fire from 18 positions along the Trans-Canada Highway. Directing their fire on registered targets at distances ranging from three to five kilometres, the gunners use explosive shells to trigger safe, controlled avalanches, thus preventing snow build-up that would eventually produce dangerous, uncontrolled avalanches.

The highway and the rail line are closed to traffic before each shoot, and care is taken to prevent damage to humans, wildlife and the environment. When each shoot is completed, the fallen snow is cleared from the route, which is then opened to traffic once more.

The results

During the winter, the traffic burden in Rogers Pass can reach 4,000 motor vehicles and 40 trains per day. The value of maintaining four-season commercial-grade road and rail links between coastal British Columbia and the rest of Canada is estimated at billions of dollars.