"The Snow War" (1979) Digitized by NFB of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada’s Collection Curator recently digitized The Snow War, a film directed by Harold Tichenor in 1979, depicting the efforts of a mobile avalanche-control team to keep open the important Rogers Pass, situated in Glacier National Park, nestled in between Revelstoke and Golden.

In the late 19th century, Rogers Pass was chosen by the Canadian Pacific Railway as the best route through the Selkirk Mountains. For years, the lives of rail workers were lost to avalanches in the pass, including in 1910 when one avalanche took the lives of 62 men. When the Trans Canada Highway was being built, the avalanche control team was created, and tasked with monitoring and predicting avalanches.

Although 43 years have passed since the filming of Snow Warit is still a mostly-accurate depiction of the work that is done to keep the public safe from avalanches in Rogers Pass. New technologies have been employed where possible, such the case of the telemetry teletype machine’s used in the 70’s and in the film which pre-date modern computers. The building shown in the film is the same headquarters that the team resides in today.

There is a rather good segment about how avalanches form which focusses on new snow instability. Layers of different types within a single storm are animated well. This is somewhat unique since most resources today focus on the persistent instabilities which are behind most recreational accidents.

The film ends with a scene with the Canadian Army — a partership that still stands strong. A contigent is based on the pass through each winter.

This upcoming season marks the 61st year of avalanche control in Rogers Pass.

Watch the entire film ad-free on the National Film Board of Canada website by clicking the image: