The Skagway road has reopened for a short period today.

Three separate avalanches have left the South Klondike Highway closed since Dec. 29, trapping residents from both sides of the border.

The road first closed at 4 p.m. last Friday due to extreme avalanche hazards, Don Hobbis, director of the Department of Highways and Public Works' transportation maintenance branch, said today.

Two avalanches then occurred on Sunday at kilometre 81.4 and 58.1, he said. Another came down on Monday at km 79.5.

All three are on the Canadian side, with the British Columbia-Yukon border at km 80 and Fraser, B.C. at km 36.5.

The largest of the three slides is approximately 10 metres deep and 90 m wide, said Hobbis. He added it is the largest the Yukon has seen in 20 years.

With daylight breaking this morning, it was decided that the road could be opened to one lane of traffic, he said, and hotels in Skagway were contacted to inform stranded travellers.

The department is reporting this morning that the road will be open for daylight hours from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m.

If the avalanche hazard remains high, the highway will again close during the darkness hours, said Hobbis.

The areas where the avalanches occurred still have equipment working, he said.

'It takes longer to remove those volumes of snow,' he said. The location is making it difficult to remove the slide, he added. The area is very restricted.

The crews from Fraser and Carcross are both on-site working on the removal.

George Sahlstrom was among the Yukoners trapped in Skagway after returning from Juneau last Sunday.

Upon arriving in the Alaskan port, he learned the road was closed and has had to stay in a hotel for the past three nights before returning to Whitehorse this morning.

Sahlstrom left Skagway at approximately 8:10 this morning. His was the second car to get through Canadian Customs.

The road, however, was excellent, he added. 'It was perfect.'

Eight students from Porter Creek Secondary School along with a teacher and chaperon were also trapped in Skagway since the evening of Dec. 31, said school principal Kerry Huff.

The students had been in Juneau for a basketball tournament and ended up having to spend the last several nights in a Skagway hotel, he said. It is a cost that is being picked up by the school.

'They've been walking a lot and watching a lot of DVDs,' said Huff.

The rec centre in the small city was also opened for the team to practise, he said. As well, arrangements had been made for the students to go to school in town and use computers to retrieve homework should they not have gotten out of town this morning.

The team, however, was among those getting across the border before it closes again for the evening, said Huff.

Sahlstrom said the hardest part of the delay was not knowing when the road would be reopening.

'There was no way of knowing when it would be open again,' he said, adding he spent time on-line on his lap top checking the road's status during the closure.

'There was nothing to do, nowhere to go,' he said.

Canada Customs will be open from 8 a.m. until midnight, while the U.S. Customs will be open for 24 hours.

Motorists are being reminded not to stop in signed avalanche areas between the Alaska border and the Venus Mine Site at km 87.