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A major landslide this week has prompted the closure of the South Klondike Highway, blocking one of several routes used by travelers in and out of Alaska and stranding some visitors.
The “massive slide” triggered by heavy rains occurred Tuesday evening, which remained closed Thursday, according to an alert on the 511 travel information site. The highway runs between Skagway and Whitehorse. The roughly closed section is between Carcross, Yukon and Fraser, British Columbia.
Some cruise ship passengers were trapped by the slide this week, according to reporting by the Chilkat Valley News and the CBC. Passengers who disembarked in Skagway Tuesday to ride the White Pass & Yukon Route Railway became stranded by a separate mudslide that covered the tracks, according to reporting in the Chilkat Valley News. Buses returned them to their ship via Haines on Wednesday.
The slide that covered the tracks was cleared by Thursday, according to White Pass rail spokeswoman Jacqui Taylor-Rose.
“The line has been cleared and railroad resumed full service to Fraser, BC Wednesday afternoon and rail only service to Carcross on Thursday, July 25th,” Taylor-Rose wrote in an email. “Any tour product offerings with bus service have been altered until the full reopening of the highway.”
Tuesday’s mudslide disrupted the railway’s southbound service, and passengers were routed back to Carcross and put on buses to travel to Skagway, the rail said in a release Wednesday. But the Klondike Highway slide then prompted those buses to be turned around and sent back again through Carcross to Haines, where they met their ship.
About 200 cruise ship passengers who arrived in Skagway ended up back in Carcross Tuesday night, with few services available, after the slide turned around their buses, the CBC reported.
Crews began clearing the road Wednesday afternoon but it was expected to remain closed Thursday, according to Yukon Highways and Public Works. The agency said officials hoped to reopen the road to single-lane traffic on Friday.
They recommended travelers check 511Yukon.ca for updates.
The Skagway Police Department in an update Wednesday said the U.S. border was open for northbound tours and traffic “but ONLY to the Yukon Suspension Bridge. All traffic must turn around at that point. The mudslide deposited a significant amount of debris on the road and we have been advised it will likely be multiple days before it can reopen to northbound traffic beyond the Suspension Bridge.”