The scenic drive between Jasper and Lake Louise turned into a detour odyssey for travellers last Thursday (June 16).

After days of consistent and sometimes heavy rainfall, mud, rock and debris slid from embankments at the side of the Icefields Parkway in seven separate locations early Thursday morning. By 10:20, the highway was closed between Saskatchewan River Crossing and Lake Louise, and bulletins had been sent informing business operators and Parks Canada staff of the temporary closure.

“You can never predict a mudslide, and with that amount of moisture, it’s very possible that things become saturated and give way, and that’s what happened,” said Don Roy, the highways manager for Parks Canada in Lake Louise. Roy and his crew took on the mud and rock flows, trying to clear the road as quickly as possible. By 8:00 p.m. that night, they had succeeded in doing so.

“I think certainly we did everything we could and it was within a reasonable time frame,” Roy said.

Travellers from Jasper who had to make it to southern Alberta that day were forced to re-route on Highway 11 through Rocky Mountain House, adding hours to travel times, depending on the destination. For northbound traffic, only those vehicles that could prove they were only going as far as Num-Ti-Jah Lodge at Bow Lake or the Mosquito Creek campground and hostel were allowed to proceed past Lake Louise.

All of the “debris flows” occurred between Bow Summit and the Saskatchewan River Crossing. The largest of the seven covered 30 metres of the road, at a depth of approximately one metre.

“Out of the seven sites, some of them had slid before, but there were a couple where we had never seen any activity before,” Roy said. 

Before heading out on the Icefields Parkway, motorists are advised to consult the road reports at the Visitor Information Centre or online at the Jasper National Park website. During the summer months, the road report site will only be updated if there is a closure or unusual conditions.