Danyelle Magnan is a Parks Canada mountain safety manager, overseeing avalanche control along one of the most dangerous highway corridors in North America.Parks Canada
High above Rogers Pass in Glacier National Park, British Columbia, with winter storms building and tonnes of unstable snow clinging to steep alpine faces, Danyelle Magnan prepares to make decisions that could mean the difference between a clear highway and catastrophe.
Her job is to keep the Trans-Canada Highway open – and people alive – by controlling avalanches before they come crashing down.
She does it with calculation, experience and a tolerance for risk that few possess, making literal life-or-death decisions on a near-daily basis.
When asked about a “typical day” as a Parks Canada mountain safety manager, Ms. Magnan just chuckles. “Typical days” aren’t something she encounters.
Most begin well before dawn, with safety briefings that include her team and members of the military.
“I’m checking the weather, I’m checking current conditions,” she says. “We’re going over our current conditions, what our avalanche concerns are, and what our objectives are for the day.”
They analyze snowpack, snowfall and weather conditions, predicting where and when an avalanche may be brewing, and determining how best to mitigate it. Many other mountain regions rely on helicopter-deployed avalanche control but in Glacier National Park about 95 per cent of the controlled avalanches are triggered using a C3 Howitzer – a military-grade cannon operated through a partnership with the Department of National Defence. The artillery has a lot of advantages over helicopters, which can only be used when conditions are right.
“The beauty of the Howitzer is that it allows us to do avalanche control in any weather conditions, any visibility,” Ms. Magnan says. “We can go out in the middle of the night and do avalanche control. We can go out in howling storms where it’s snowing super heavily.”
They have to know how to deploy these tools so that the avalanches they intentionally trigger don’t end up on the road.
“Ideally, they come down and stop just short of the highway,” she says.
The job is an important one in an area with a history of tragedy. Rogers Pass was the site of the deadliest avalanche in Canadian history. On March 4, 1910, 63 men were working to clear an avalanche off the rail line outside Revelstoke, B.C., when a second avalanche swept down the mountain. It killed all but one of the workers and devastated the town.
More than a century later, the danger remains. A new tool from Avalanche Canada, launched in December, maps and analyzes avalanche fatalities since 1782. It shows that while avalanche deaths are relatively rare, the risk is very real. The data underscores the natural power at play – hundreds of thousands of kilograms of snow moving at speeds that can exceed 300 kilometres an hour.
The stretch of highway that Ms. Magnan oversees has the highest avalanche hazard index in Canada and the third highest in North America. In just 43 kilometres of highway, there are 135 avalanche paths. Her job is to ensure the crushing snow falls safely, keeping travellers and a major economic corridor, which includes a CPKC rail line, out of harm’s way.
As Emma Barrett and Paul Martin write in their book Extreme: Why Some People Thrive at the Limits, “Most people who operate in extreme environments are not big sensation-seekers (and neither are they impulsive).” This fits how Ms. Magnan operates in the high-stakes environment of her job.
“You’re trying to manage the risk,” she says, adding that about $4-million worth of goods are affected for every hour the highway is closed.
While working to keep the public safe, Ms. Magnan also has to ensure her own safety and that of her team.
“There’s risk on the highway, so although my job is highway-based, and that might sound kind of benign, when I’m doing avalanche control, I’m travelling out in areas of high hazard and periods when danger exists.”
Having a clear head while balancing risk and safety is key. “Extreme operators such as divers and mountaineers depend for their survival on meticulous preparation, the avoidance of unnecessary risks and the ability to remain unperturbed by acute peril,” Ms. Barrett and Mr. Martin state in Extreme.
Certainly, mitigating risk is always top of mind for Ms. Magnan. She relies on safe work practices, protocols, the right equipment and highly specialized, intensive training from the Canadian Avalanche Association, under which she holds a level three certification – a process she compares to writing a thesis.
Keeping travellers safe from avalanches along the highway makes up the majority of the job, but it isn’t the whole thing. As a mountain safety manager, Ms. Magnan is responsible for visitor safety, which also means coordinating backcountry rescues. She lists off types of rescues that sound straight out of the movies.
“We do helicopter long line rescue, where you’re hanging underneath the helicopter so you can get inserted into technical terrain. We do crevasse rescue (think: using your equipment, such as rope and ice axe, to pull someone to safety) and avalanche rescue. In the summer we have wheeled stretchers and cliff rope rescue. We’re trained and practiced in many skills, and I’ve done many rescues in most of those scenarios.”
Unfortunately, a Hollywood ending isn’t always guaranteed. Meeting family members who have lost a loved one carries an emotional weight.
“It’s moving and it impacts you,” she says. “It’s so cliche but you don’t want to take anything for granted, and just appreciate the time you have with people.”
Sticking with some fundamentals has been key to her carrying the weight of this job, day after day.
“What’s worked for me is really focusing on managing my stress where I can,” she says. She exercises, plays with her dog and sleeps when she is able, because rest can be scarce when she’s on the job.
“I prioritize self care, low stress and good food. I’m planning ahead.”
She also emphasizes the importance of mental health, seeking help when she needs it.
“Twenty years ago, I was not as aware of [taking care of my mental health], but certainly take it really seriously now. I just do what I can within my control, to take care of myself.”
Perhaps part of the success Ms. Magnan has found can be chalked up to having some of the personality traits identified by Ms. Barrett and Mr. Martin. “Researchers who studied the personality characteristics of participants in a hazardous expedition to the North Pole found … high levels of self-control and achievement orientation along with low reactivity to stress.”
Nearly two decades into doing a job she loves, she says it’s the importance of the job and her teammates as factors in what drives her. That, and the sheer intensity and thrill of witnessing avalanches as part of her workday.
“I’m routinely getting to see these massive natural events happening in a way that not many people get to experience. It’s incredible and not something I take for granted.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correct the spelling of Danyelle Magnan's surname.