Changes at Mt Rainier -- road closed Tues, Weds

It's a joke…but no one is laughing….
Here is real-time right now…

By minimal staffing, do they mean that all the staff went up to take a powder day? WTF.

By minimal staffing, do they mean that all the staff went up to take a powder day? WTF.

Seriously, I am begining to bellieve it means "FU, we haven't got the budget we want for everything we want and beyond that we haven't gotten our pay raises, nevermind our promised pay parity, and we are seeing our benefits being eroded."  As Vogtski pointed out a while back, morale is very low in the NPS.  I think they are playing a dangerous game.  Once upon a time, when an agency cried "Wolf" at the door (inadequate budget), the public demanded adequate budgets; today, no matter what the reality is, the pulbic, overall, is liable to think negative thoughts of waste, fraud, abuse, corruption, laziness, incompetence, etc. and be cheered along by the Republican party.

FWIW, I do think federal employees have been abused. Based on my conversations with park employees, I also think that MRNP does have the budget to keep the road open, except during very unusual events/dangerous times, if the top managers would make that a priority. But many others things take priority, especially an overly cautious approach to safety (public and employee); note I said overly cautious; I am a big believer in safety and I think safety is more readily obtained (at least for the rational person potentially at risk) than the managers believe; I don't believe access should be dumbed down to protect the dumbest or least rational; let Darwinian selective pressures do that.

Safety Third

Foot of fresh snow? Where? Every building visible in either Paradise cam this morning (and the picture in this thread from hours later) shows only a faint dusting on the roofs.

It is a joke.

Real time: the road to Paradise will remain closed today. [no further information, no reason given].  The Official Mt. Rainier Visitor site on the MRNP twitter shows the beautiful picture and invites visitors to come.