On a snowy Friday night in a quiet parking lot in Mullan, Doug Wuolle pulled himself into his massive plow truck, and grinned as he took the wheel of the vehicle with which he would spend the next 11 hours clearing Lookout Pass.

"This is great. I love it," Wuolle said a little after 5 p.m. Friday, an hour into his graveyard shift.

Wuolle, 52, is a third-year employee of the Idaho Transportation Department. As an hourly staffer, Wuolle works for the ITD during the winter months.

With the heat blasting in the truck's interior wood paneling, Wuolle drives with his side window wide open and packs a lip of tobacco to "calm the nerves."

There is no evidence of nerves as Wuolle makes his way up and down Lookout Pass, passing semis and trailing a string of headlights following in his cleared path, in what has been described as the snow belt of the Idaho Panhandle.

"The biggest thing in winter conditions and roads like these is you have to drive like it's winter," Wuolle said.

Summers, Wuolle can still be found driving trucks. He said he hauls material to and from the Superfund site, driving his own truck as a subcontractor.

"I've always loved trucks," Wuolle said.

Wuolle comes from a large family. He is one of eight children, including his younger brother, Dave Wuolle, who is chief of police of the Kellogg Police Department.

Wuolle said that the sheer size of trucks first lured him while he was growing. He would later go on to serve 30 years hauling timber in the area.

But plowing Lookout Pass is a different beast.

Blinding conditions coupled with 12-hour shifts and bad drivers make it a much tougher task.

"There are some nights you can't see up here," Wuolle said.

The state plow trucks are equipped with a front plow, which spans approximately 10 feet, and a side plow or "wing" on the right side that is lifted and pulled in, much like a bird would do when diving through the air. The wing is pulled in by use of a joystick next to the driver when passing semi-trucks, a seemingly tight and dangerous maneuver, but one that Wuolle handled with ease.

The truck's tires are a foot wide and 2 feet tall, and do not need to be chained up in the hazardous winter conditions of North Idaho.

Besides the weather, Wuolle deals with other drivers, several of whom attempted to pass his truck and the plow truck driven by Stacey Guy, a second-year driver with the ITD.

"Don't you dare," Wuolle said Friday night as a pickup truck passed him on the left. "If you're going through country like North Idaho you have to realize there's going to be delays."

Guy and Wuolle ride in tandem up and down Lookout Pass. Guy "rides the rail" in the left lane as Wuolle plows the right lane a few car-lengths behind his partner.

Driving east, it takes the plowing duo 15 minutes to go from milepost 69 to exit 0. Wuolle had his speedometer at a steady 30 mph most of the night and said he keeps his speed adjusted to Guy's. Too close and he can't see, but too far behind and he misses plowing snow.

The pickup truck did not pass Stacey up front and became awkwardly stuck in limbo in the left lane in between Wuolle and Guy.

"The rule of thumb is to stay behind the snow plow and you'll have no problems," Wuolle said. "But when you're creating a problem like this, you're not being part of the solution."

In a snowstorm like Friday night's, Wuolle was spraying 250 pounds of salt per mile to "break up the snow floor."

And how does the driver know he's doing his job?

"When cars pass and I hear that wetness sound, I know we're doing a good job," Wuolle said of the sounds of cars in slush instead of snow in the eastbound lanes.

Another sign of an excellent job is when sparks fly from the bottom of the plow.

By the second time Wuolle and Guy reached the top of the pass, a fresh 2-inch layer of snow had already fallen. When they exit together, they perform a move called "cutting the gore." A gore is the triangular shape formed where roads merge or split.

Guy plowed the left portion of the exit lane while Wuolle swung his truck in and cut the right side, then lifted his plow as to not scrape away the salt being laid down in front of him.

When he is not helping Guy clear Lookout Pass during a severe snowstorm, Wuolle said he plows Interstate 90 from milepost 62 to 40 near Cataldo.

Dinner for the three-year driver on Friday night was a bag of beef jerky, with a view of the mountain pass punctuated by the intense flurry of snow.

"We keep (the road) passable so there are no accidents," Wuolle said. "It's a rush."