Mt. Rainier heavy-handed policing

40 below windchill, wow that's cold! I remember reading the summit forecast and thinking it looked survivable but Arctic.  For comparison, when you showed up at Muir it was a balmy 10 degrees with a windchill of -10 F. But hey, the sun was shining!

I packed up in the hut in a wet shirt, no hat, and no gloves- it felt balmy by comparison. I was very surprised when we got down and looked at the telemetry.

On the gate issue: I just spent over an hour on the phone with the deputy super, Tracy Swartout. And it was the most positive, engaging interaction I've had with any of the staff down there in 10 years or more. NOTABLY: She said she could recall just a handful of times that people have written or called about how they were (poorly) treated by park staff. So I strongly encourage anyone who got read the riot act at the gate or bull-horned in the Paradise lot in recent weeks to call and share. 360-569-6503.

Not that MRNP is reading this or willing to learn, but the "problem" of late traffic and related overtime costs could be solved immediately by simply writing parking tickets to everyone in the lot at 5pm. 

A $50 ticket goes a long way towards helping the OP wrap up his casual chat session at his car (even after being warned), and at the same time people descending the mountain behind schedule know their maximum downside is a $50 ticket, rather than a locked gate.

The parking tickets pay for the overtime and everyone can budget their time accordingly.

I know, I know--what's the point if there's no redistribution of wealth, no ascendancy of the Proletariat?  There would, however, be no more stern lectures or lame excuses at the gate. 

:

I'm not taking the bait.

Okay, I'll take it for you.

The substance of your OP was that warnings are being applied selectively. Moreover the gate closure policy is capricious--what is it about 5pm? I agree on both points.

The solution is to do away with gate closures and and heavy-handed warnings of closures. Somebody descending the mountain at 5pm knows they don't need to rush and risk injury; somebody chatting away in the parking lot knows he's going to pay for the priviledge. It all works out!

The management of our beloved MRNP is self-evident: It doesn't matter if they're crooks, their policies are incompetent. None of us like the policies, but instead of whining about them, why not suggest a better policy? The clowns that run the park--crooked or not--will heed a well-organized, well-focused citizen group.

Thankfully, I've never encountered this experience but I must say that the "stress" of getting down to the gate before it closes greatly diminishes my enjoyment of being up there. I want to stay up there and photograph sunset but it just isn't possible to do so AND get down to the gate in time.

Simplest solution I can think of is close a gate to uphill traffic and for the downhill lane, install the tire puncturing spikes like you see in parking lots that allow one way traffic through them. Probably makes too much sense. : ???

We saw absolutely no issues or hassles on Monday. No bullhorns in the parking lot, no ranger waiting by the Longmire gate, no hassle at all. Sailed through the gate at 5:01 pm without issue. Such a pleasant experience. Other than the stress of worrying that it would be like Sunday instead!

Why so different on Monday? Maybe it was the absence of the certain new LE ranger I mentioned above who really likes to hassle people (who was likely the one on duty on Sunday -- if someone did get her name, please PM me as I would really like to know if this problem is specific to certain rangers).

Or maybe Loren's productive phone conversation with park deputy superintendent Swartout (also mentioned above) only hours earlier really did make a difference? And then she told the rangers not to hassle people so much on Monday evening? One can only hope so!

Okay, I'll take it for you.

The substance of your OP was that warnings are being applied selectively.  Moreover the gate closure policy is capricious--what is it about 5pm?  I agree on both points.

The solution is to do away with gate closures and and heavy-handed warnings of closures.  Somebody descending the mountain at 5pm knows they don't need to rush and risk injury; somebody chatting away in the parking lot knows he's going to pay for the priviledge.  It all works out!

Thankfully, I've never encountered this experience but I must say that the "stress" of getting down to the gate before it closes greatly diminishes my enjoyment of being up there. I want to stay up there and photograph sunset but it just isn't possible to do so AND get down to the gate in time.

Simplest solution I can think of is close a gate to uphill traffic and for the downhill lane, install the tire puncturing spikes like you see in parking lots that allow one way traffic through them. Probably makes too much sense. : ???

Most people (including you two) are misunderstanding the main issue behind the the gate closures, so I'll try to explain it. The issue is that all national parks have exclusive law enforcement jurisdiction, and have since the early days of the National Park Service 100 years ago. What this means is that they are solely responsible for all law enforcement duties within their boundaries, except in emergencies when other police agencies will obviously come and assist the NPS law enforcement rangers (the most recent example being the tragic shooting on January 1, 2012). This is in sharp contrast to other federal areas like national forests or BLM land or wildlife refuges or whatever, which have no such exclusive law enforcement jurisdiction, and in fact, most law enforcement duties are handled by local county sheriffs with only a skeleton staff of US Forest Service or BLM law enforcement officers.

So in order for any road-accessed area of a national park to be open, they need to have adequate law enforcement staffing, and the number which Mount Rainier National Park considered to be "adequate" increased substantially in the wake of that shooting. Due to budget issues (which may be partially their own fault based on priorities), they want to have only a single 8-hour 9am-5pm LE ranger shift assigned to cover that Longmire-Paradise area during the winter season (roughly November to April). Thus the 5pm closure time. And the uphill gate does close at 4pm, with only the downhill half remaining open till 5pm. Those who drive uphill around the half-closed gate between 4 and 5pm invariably get caught by the LE on duty, and severely warned or ticketed (no tire puncturing spikes required). So unless the park chooses to increase LE staffing during winter, the gate hours are stuck being 9-5 only.

After some point in April, they do increase LE staffing to multiple shifts, and so the road can remain open 24 hours a day. Once there are guests staying at Paradise Inn starting in May, the road in fact must remain open 24 hours a day for those guests (except for temporary storm closures, which are rare).

I can't believe that it looks like I'm defending what's going on in the park, and I'm really not (!), but I just feel compelled to explain basic facts that everyone keeps misunderstanding or simply does not know.