WATCH Montana DOT Gives Perspective on Clearing Beartooth Highway
I will never forget my first trip over Beartooth Pass along the Montana/Wyoming border. We had a bunch of extended family visiting from Nebraska, and we couldn't help but make fun of them for being "flat-landers." They complained about mountain roads, snow, and even fear of heights. So we did what any compassionate family member would do. We drug a carload of "flat-landers" to the top of the pass. Call it "exposure therapy."
During our trip to the top of Beartooth Pass, we witnessed snowboarders jumping over the highway... In June! These daredevils were jumping across the gap created by the highway being carved through a large amount of snowpack. Not only that, but our friends from Nebraska nearly fainted when we decided to have a rigorous snowball fight up in the thin mountain air. Yes...A snowball fight in June.
You couldn't help but wonder how the highway was carved out of these giant snowbanks. How they created essentially 12-foot walls made out of snowpack. It involves many brave state employees and some big equipment to prepare the Beartooth Pass for travel.
Recently the Montana Department of Transportation released a series of videos documenting the springtime work that is done to get the pass opened. These videos allow the viewer to climb aboard one of the big plows and essentially experience what a MDT plow driver does. The beauty of the high mountain winter wonderland, coupled with the terrifying image of driving along the edge of a snow-packed highway.
Note: This MDT driver includes a very fitting soundtrack for such a scary job. "Walk the Line" seems to be a good track to plow to.
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