Dec 19, '14; Mt. Rainier, a new page? Or not?

Tell me why they don't shut down the roads, and I mean access, when there is a SAR operation in the summer.

Shutting the road to Paradise for SAR activity started after Margarets death. It is so unfortunate but I believe they are using this incident to their perverted advantage.

Who actually believes that having no civilians skiing, snowshoeing etc, could not be a benefit by having more eyes in the terrain?

I think, based on news reports and other articles, that Margaret's (the LEO) death had a pround impact on the park with repurcussions up and down the line, compounded by other deaths (snowshoers) and lost people. I don't agree that the response to these incidents is warranted or well thought out. The link suggests that one sequela to the death is an inflated LEO staff and requirements for extraordinarey supervision. And that it might be confounded with some inherent bias against winter recreation. The death of the LEO seemingly was unrelated to anything in the park. The perp had already killed some of his acquaintances and was fleeing, evidently assuming he could drive across the park and elude police. It was an unfortunate and unpredictable and extemely unusual incident. I agree with you that closing the park for SAR may not be the best way to find lost people, especially when they are lost during a storm.

MRNP seems to be classifying Winter as a terrorist under federal guidelines of some sort...

... and the public as accomplices.

Well excluding the public during SAR operation would have the advantage of not adding new tracks in the snow to the area being searched... So if searches spotted tracks other than the known search parties -- that's where they should look. If the public is given free range -- tracks could be anyones.

More eyes could be helpful -- except those eyes don't have anyway to communicate with SAR -- cell coverage is very sketchy at Paradise with Verizon and none for other carriers -- and they aren't going to hand out the shortwave radios to random people.

Tracks on the snow aren't the same issue in the summer.

Fresh snow occurs in late spring and early fall. I have been on several rescues in those time periods with several feet of new snow and the public is NOT barred from the search area.
Stop drinking the kool-aid Randy…..

Also snowed three inches last night and in fear of more snow, then rain, then….OMG…avalanches….the road will remain closed….Shocker.

The gate not openning today shouldn't be a suprise -- it is consistent with the published flowchart -- winter storm warnings mean keeping the gate closed.

Keeping the public out during the SAR operation last week might have had more to do with that LE Rangers had their hand full coordinating the SAR operation. The correct choice in my book.

I've volunteered at the park many times over the years and participated in a number of SAR operations. While volunteering, I have a park service radio and monitor the LE radio chatter (and call in my own reports) Even on a day with little or no new snow, the LE rangers are kept pretty busy just keeping park visitors on the road. It's amazing how many people spin out, run into snowbanks and have various problems just driving the road. The amount of boneheaded behavoir by the general public is pretty amazing. The bulk of the park visitors in the winter are folks coming up to use the sledding hill -- or just to walk around a bit and for many see snow for the first time. This isn't "Kool-aid", this is direct personal experience.

If the park was only open to experienced winter travelers like you and me -- they could have a different gate policy, but the park needs to serve *ALL* of the public, not just people with AWD that know how to drive on snow covered roads and are equipped to spend the night safely if they get "snowed in".

I suspect that in a decade or so as congress keeps whittling away at the NPS budget the Longmire gate will be locked in November and stay that way until May and these threads will seem quaint.

Tell me why they don't shut down the roads, and I mean access, when there is a SAR operation in the summer.

Fresh snow occurs in late spring and early fall. I have been on several rescues in those time periods with several feet of new snow and the public is NOT barred from the search area.
Stop drinking the kool-aid Randy…..

The reason that the roads and access to Paradise aren't shut down during SAR operations in summer, late spring, and early fall appears to be simple: the Paradise Inn is open and there are dozens to hundreds of guests staying there, who require 24/7 access. Therefore the road stays open 24/7 including during SARs and whatever, as closing it would require closing Paradise Inn and evacuating the guests. They do sometimes (rarely) close the road to Sunrise during summer SAR operations on the north side of the mountain, when they need the Sunrise parking lot for helicopter staging purposes, and they can do so since there is no Sunrise Inn.

It seems like this answer should have been obvious. If another incident like the search for the fugitive gunman happened in summer instead of winter, it is likely that the Paradise road would be closed and Paradise Inn guests would be evacuated for public safety reasons if it were deemed safe to do so, especially if the search extended beyond a single day. But clearly they can't do that for normal SAR operations.

I'm pissed off too about the increasing road closures the past several years and wish the trend of decreased access would reverse, but it's no reason to rant at others here on TAY like Randy who try to provide reasonable explanations and try to see things from the park staff's perspective.