Paridise

Anybody know if the gate opened today ?

According to the Mount Rainier twitter page, it looks like they opened around 11:00 today.

Back in the record snowfalls of the 70's, the NPS usually had one of their two rotary plows cannibalized to keep the other running.  The push plows were surplus 5-ton dump trucks that the Navy had given up on.  I estimated that the Paradise gate opening at Longmire took one hour past 9am for each six inches of new snow and the gate did not open about 25 times each winter.

Now, with much more powerful equipment and a park staff that has doubled in size, opening Paradise seems to take about an hour past 9am for each 2-3 inches new.  Early afternoon closures are becoming common and a Winter Storm Warning is apparently reason enough to stay closed for days at a time...

Thanks Gary 

I did a quick calculus of Paradise gate opening times on Twitter.  So far in December, it was opened to the public on 12 of 23 days.  Half of those days had a early (3pm) closure.  Four days without new snow opened about a half-hour early; The remaining eight day's opening time ranged from 9am to noon, with an average about 10:30am.

Bottom line:  They have opened for an average length of six hours on barely half the days in December.

With 3-5 feet of additional Paradise snow forecast by Sunday, 12-26, those stats are not likely to improve...

Paradise ended up closed over half the days in December.
4 critical comments on Twitter 1-2
Link would not post.

Gary,
I happened upon the profile of you by Kurt Pepanshek on the National Parks Traveler website. It was interesting to get the back story on a person (you) who is a frequent contributor to TAY and a great source of information for skiing in MRNP. Thanks for everything you do for TAY and the Traveler. 

The profile can be found at:
www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2021/12/tr...er-profile-gary-vogt
 

Thanks for the kind words, Phil! The proofreader in me has to point out that it's Kurt Repanshek  ;o)

For those interested in National Park management, here's an old thread with links to some of National Park Traveler's 'Greatest Hits":
turns-all-year.com/forum/index/random-tr...countability-finally

Searched for the old (and most viewed, by far) TAY thread "Changes At Mt. Rainier", but no luck.  It would provide some perspective about Paradise access for skiers new to the area..

I would like to suggest TAY add a separate Forum folder for Access Issues, similar to NWhikers & CascadeClimbers.