On Sunday, the squeals of children sledding and the shush of skiers gliding through the snow at Paradise should replace the roar of rotary-blade snowplows and the incessant beeping of bulldozers backing up.
Mount Rainier National Park officials were waiting Friday for test results from a sample taken from the Paradise water system. If the water is clean, the park will reopen the road from Longmire and the popular winter playground at Paradise.
The road has been closed since Feb. 5 because park maintenance crews were losing the battle after nearly two weeks of nonstop snow and the threat of avalanche.
That threat became reality a week ago when 14 slides covered the road from Longmire to Paradise, in some places more than 20 feet deep.
It wasn’t until Tuesday that crews could begin clearing the road and parking lots at Paradise.
That has been a challenge for man and machine.
Joe Palmer, a 23-year veteran at the park, took a break Thursday from running his 45,000-pound rotary-blade plow – in essence, a giant snowblower – and described what it was like when a small slide hit it.
“It was like a little Tonka toy,” he said. “One minute I’m here, and all of a sudden I’m over here on the road and I bang my head on the window.
“In all my time here, January is not a big snow month. But it seems like it snowed every day for 40 days.”
It wasn’t 40 days, but 162 inches of snow fell from Jan. 27 to Feb. 7.
“It was nonstop snow,” said Mike Gauthier, the park’s supervisory climbing ranger.
The Paradise area was blanketed by 201 inches of snow in January and more than 94 inches this month. Many park employees are comparing this to the winter of 1998-99, when 1,032.5 inches fell, the second-highest in park history. (The record high was 1,122 inches in 1971-72.)
“You can’t see out any of the windows in my house,” Gauthier said of his park residence at Longmire. “The paint was cracking on the inside of my house from the load on the roof.”
Ed Remynse and Mitch Anderson were using shovels and a saw to clear 41/2 feet of snow from the roof of an operations building at Longmire, cutting the snow into blocks and tumbling them off the roof.
“I’m a painter, but we’re all snow shovelers now,” Remynse said.
“We’ve been shoveling for two weeks straight,” Anderson chimed in.
At the nearby National Park Inn, Scott Collman was spreading sand on the sidewalks. But that wasn’t the Rainier Guest Services employee’s primary concern. “I’ve got $8,000 of food in the walk-in coolers at Jackson Visitor Center that is starting to warm up because they lost the water system,” he said.
While crews were clearing the road and pullouts Thursday, another group was meeting with Marty Schmoker, the avalanche program coordinator for the state Department of Transportation.
The group visited several avalanche sites as Schmoker offered options on how to deal with buildups of snow. One recommendation was increasing the number of weather stations midway up the 14,411-foot mountain.
“It would give the avalanche forecast center more of a knowledge base of what’s happening on the mountain,” Schmoker said.
Listening in was park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga. His objective was reopening the road in time for the holiday weekend. He spent much of Thursday checking the road work and talking with staff members.
“I’m impressed with the progress we’ve made,” he said.
Uberuaga hoped to reopen the road today, but test results of water samples won’t be complete until this afternoon. The park cannot reopen the area without potable water, he said.
The park boss also took a moment to enjoy the first sunny day at the park in quite some time.
“This is beautiful,” he said as the afternoon sun illuminated the jagged peaks of the Tatoosh Range.
For almost two weeks, gray jays and the occasional crow and red fox have had Paradise to themselves. They’ll soon be joined by sledders, skiers, snowshoers, snowboarders and the curious.
Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640
blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure
People in search of fresh powder in Mount Rainier’s backcountry should be wary of snow conditions.
The Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center expects avalanche danger to increase Sunday, mainly during the late morning and afternoon, becoming considerable above 4,000 to 5,000 feet. Paradise is at 5,400 feet.
“I think there will be a real threat to people in the backcountry. We have no information for two weeks,” said Mike Gauthier, the park’s supervisory climbing ranger, said Friday. “If we get a warming trend, the snow can get unstable.”
That’s the scenario unfolding, based on the forecast. The avalanche center predicts that freezing levels will rise above 10,000 feet for the first time this winter.
This will create the increasing avalanche danger as surface snow becomes wet and weak. The center’s forecasters said the danger will be higher on sun-exposed terrain.
Gauthier said people planning to snow camp in the immediate vicinity of Paradise should be safe.
At the play area, deputy chief ranger Alison Robb said more than a half-dozen rangers will be on hand to make sure kids and adults follow the rules.
She reminded drivers they must carry chains when driving in the park during the winter.
Jeffrey P. Mayor, The News Tribune
Snowfall
YearInches
1998-991,032.5
1999-00753
2000-01491
2001-02837
2002-03603
2003-04650
2004-05410
2005-06722
2006-07621
2007-08566.5 as
of Thursday
Record high
1,122 inches in 1971-72
Record low
313 inches in 1939-40 CONDITIONS
To check road conditions and weather information at the park, check the park’s Web site at www.nps.gov/mora or call 360-569-2211, then select 1.
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