The snow began to fall in the early morning hours of Tuesday, February 24, driven by an east wind. By the time it stopped falling, two days and approximately one foot of snow later, Highway 3 between Coleman and Sparwood was closed and more than a hundred semi trailers and countless stranded travelers filled the community.
The province, in consultation with Crowsnest Pass RCMP, decided to close Highway 3 on the afternoon of Wednesday, February 25. The barrier arms in west Coleman were lowered at roughly 3:30 p.m. Manned by Crowsnest Pass Rescue personnel, they were not lifted again until more than 16 hours later, just before 8:00 a.m. on Thursday.
Sergeant Scott Howard of the Crowsnest Pass RCMP detachment, says that the decision was made after a three-vehicle collision on a narrow strip of highway at Island Lake, near the BC border.

“The visibility was extremely limited,” he says. He describes the road conditions near the border as very treacherous, with low visiblity and a lot of blowing snow.
After the highway was closed, RCMP escorted vehicles still caught between the barricades to safety.
More than a hundred semi trailers spent the night lining the highway or filling parking lots in the Pass, waiting for the road to open again in the morning. Travelers through the area were also stuck, filling up every local hotel and then spilling into the Crowsnest Centre.
... View the complete story in the March 3 edition of the Pass Herald