Published on March 19, 2014
At Midas Gold, our employees wear many hats and jump in to fill a variety of roles for our company. But recently, a few members of our team took on jobs they probably never anticipated when they quickly worked to help clear the Stibnite Road after a series of avalanches.
On March 6, the team woke up the learn there had been 10 snow slides on a three mile stretch of the road, which is east of Yellow Pine. The slides had covered the East Fork of the South Fork of the Salmon River (EFSFSR) and completely blocked the road in two different spots. It didn’t take long before the slides caused the river to divert onto Stibnite Road.
Midas Gold employees quickly got to work and by using equipment that was on site, they were able to get folks from Stibnite to Yellow Pine by the end of the day. In all, it took three days to remove debris and snow and get the river to start flowing in its normal channel again. The largest slide extended over the road for more than 50 feet and was at least 14 feet deep. The tallest slide was 60 feet from the base of the EFSFSR.
Throughout the process, Midas Gold worked closely with the Valley County Road Department and the Payette National Forest. We are very proud of our team and all their hard work responding to this incident.
Below are photos from the Star News’ coverage of the event.
Midas Gold employee Dave Williams standing on top of a large slide that came across the EFSFSR, buried 300ft of the South Fork road above Deadman Bar Trailhead and isolated the town of Yellow Pine.
Upper most slide above Tamarack Creek along the Stibnite Road
Second large slide upstream of Tamarack Creek that blocked the Stibnite road to a depth of 14 feet.
Anyone for a game of pickup sticks?
60 foot tall slide downstream of Tamarack Creek that diverted stream flow onto the Stibnite road for two days.
Slide over the EFSFSR just above Profile Creek on the Stibnite Road
