Contact: Summer Derrey, WSDOT communications, 509-969-7784 (Yakima/Chinook) 
Kris Olsen, WSDOT communications, 206-440-4475 (Shoreline/Cayuse)

CHINOOK PASS – Several feet of snowfall over the weekend sent Chinook (State Route 410) and Cayuse (State Route 123) passes into hibernation for the season. Crews temporarily closed the passes on Friday, Nov. 11, due to avalanche danger. On Monday, Nov. 14, WSDOT maintenance engineers made the call – both passes will remain closed until spring. The risk of avalanche is too great to keep the passes open. 

Chinook and Cayuse passes endured a combination of snow and strong wind that left snow drifts blocking both lanes of the highways. The next major storm is forecasted for Wednesday, Nov. 16. 

“There are more than 100 avalanche paths on Chinook Pass that affect the highway,” said John Stimberis, WSDOT avalanche forecast and control specialist. “We need to protect the public.” 

Chinook Pass (elevation 5,430 feet) is closed from Morse Creek (five miles east of the summit) to Crystal Mountain Boulevard (eight miles northwest of the summit). Access to the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort on eastbound SR 410 remains open. Cayuse Pass (SR 123) is closed within Mount Rainier National Park from the 4,675-foot Cayuse Pass summit to Stevens Canyon Road. 

Each year WSDOT closes Chinook and Cayuse passes, usually in November, for the winter due to high avalanche risk and hazardous driving conditions. The combination of avalanche danger, mountainous terrain, lack of cell phone service, inclement weather and relatively few vehicles on the roads make driving these passes in the winter potentially hazardous. 

WSDOT offers a number of ways to get travel information: 
• View the Chinook Pass page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/Traffic/Passes/Chinook
• View the Cayuse Pass page: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes/cayuse
• Check out other statewide mountain passes: call 511 or visit: www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/passes
• Learn some helpful driving tips: www.wsdot.wa.gov/winter

You can also Check out our most recent photos on Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/sets/72157628003378555/with/6345354984/

“There is still snow on the ground in the campground, so campers should be aware that while they may have a cleared spot to park their vehicle, they should expect to have to dig out their picnic tables and a space for tents in many of the sites,” said Chief Ranger Chuck Young.

Potable water, restrooms and other facilities are up and running, he added.

Public road access into the White River Campground opened up Wednesday. The campground won’t open until June 24, however, as there is still quite a bit of clearing to take place and getting the water and power utilities up and running, Young said.

But, opening the road enables climbers to drive and park in the campground to access the Glacier Basin Trail.

POSTED BY JEFF MAYOR ON JUNE 2, 2011 AT 5:45 AM
Read more: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/adventure/2011/06/02/cougar-rock-campground-at-mount-rainier-opens-friday-at-noon/#ixzz1OE4oCzNN

Mount Rainier National Park officials announced Tuesday that an annual climbing pass will cost most adults $43, or an increase of $13. A new youth fee will cost $30 for climbers 24 and younger. The new fees go into effect immediately.

About 11,000 people climb the 14,411-foot volcano each year. Climbing fees pay for rangers salaries, updated climbing routes and weather information, maintenance of toilets at high camps and other services.

Park officials say the fees haven’t covered the full costs of the climbing program over the years. The climbing fee was last increased in 2003.

JEFFREY P. MAYOR
Last updated: December 6th, 2010 12:00 PM (PST)
The greatest threat to the busiest road in Mount Rainier National Park is the mountain itself.

Receding glaciers, loose rocks and boulders, glacial outbursts and debris flows could combine to cut off Nisqually-Paradise Road. Half the 1.2 million people who typically visit the park each year travel that roadway.

Yet the threat is not limited to the 18-mile road.

Nearly every major roadway in the park – including Westside Road, Stevens Canyon Road, state Route 123, state Route 410 and Carbon River Road – is threatened.

Portions of the Carbon River and Westside roads have been closed because of flooding. Stevens Canyon and state Route 123 are susceptible to landslides. State Route 410 could be flooded should the White River jump its banks.

“It’s almost historically unprecedented the conditions Mount Rainier (National Park) has to manage in terms of access,” said Paul Kennard, the park’s geomorphologist.

Closures of park roads could mean lost revenue to the park, from entrance fees to hot chocolate bought at a snack bar or nights spent at the Paradise and National Park inns. Extensive flood damage to the infrastructure in the southwest corner of the park – including park operations buildings and the National Park Inn at Longmire and the roadway – could exceed $100 million.

But the impact of road closures extends beyond the park boundary.

Each year, according to a 2002 study by Michigan State University researchers, park visitors spend $30 million at places such as the cabins at Jasmer’s at Mount Rainier, eateries such as Copper Creek Inn & Restaurant and gift shops such as Wapiti Woolies.

To protect Mount Rainier’s main thoroughfare, park geologists this summer identified six locations along the road they believe are the most threatened.

The study – prompted by the historic November 2006 flood and additional floods in 2008 and 2009 – comes as the park develops a proposal for a $30 million, three-phase project to repave Nisqually-Paradise Road.

Yet rules governing use of the federal funds will prevent the park from spending much of that money to protect the threatened locations.

The sites include Tahoma Creek, where rocks and debris constantly fill the space under the bridge, and the confluence of Van Trump Creek with the Nisqually River, where debris flows have raised the streambed 38 feet, well above the level of the road.

“When it’s raining really hard, we wake up in the morning thinking of those (six) spots,” said Kennard, who studies the natural processes that shape our landscapes, especially the effects rivers have on the land. “Those are the first spots you want to check.”

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Still fresh in the minds of many is the park’s six-month closure after the November 2006 flood. The unprecedented flood caused $36 million in damage, including every major road in the park.

“The word ‘closed’ is viral,” said Mary Kay Nelson, executive director of Visit Rainier, a marketing arm of businesses outside the park.

“The lesson we learned from the flood of 2006, we need to do a better job of telling people what’s open,” she said. “When people here the word ‘closed,’ they assume it’s all closed.”

Bob Grubb, co-owner of Wapiti Woolies in Greenwater, said his business relies on state Route 410 remaining open. The store offers souveniers, snacks and information for wayward tourists.

“We rely on (park workers) for everything up here, keeping the roads open, keeping the trail open,” he said. “It’s just like the weather, though, you just have to deal with it.

“I wish they could put more priority on the national parks. Those guys are working on a tight budget.”

For Eric Simonson, co-director of Ashford-based International Mountain Guides, it’s a matter of priorities.

“I keep thinking on one hand you’re spending a lot of money to fix a road that might need some fixing,” he said of the planned repaving of Nisqually-Paradise Road. “And then you’re going to turn around and abandon access on the Carbon River side. I mourn the loss of any access to the park.

“These glaciers and rivers, we know they move around. Rather than a perfect road, a more rugged road that can be rebuilt at a modest cost might be a better option.”

Carolyn Driedger is a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey and an expert on the volcanic and glacial nature of Mount Rainier. She has been studying the mountain since 1979.

She said while these changes are the norm at a location such as Mount Rainier, their pace has quickened.

“We recognize the Earth is certainly not static, it’s ever-changing,” she said. “The mountain you see today is a little different than the mountain your grandparents saw and what your grandchildren will see.

“But as we seek to understand Earth systems, how climate changes geological and hydrological processes, (the access issue) comes into play,” Driedger said.

NATURAL PROCESSES

Driedger was referring to the cascading effect of climate change that starts with shrinking glaciers and ends with destructive torrents of debris racing downstream toward key points throughout the park.

It all begins at the top of the mountain. The 26 major glaciers and unnamed snowfields cover about 36 square miles with a volume of about one cubic mile, making it the most glaciated mountain in the lower 48 states.

That ice blanket is shrinking.

Research by Portland State University doctoral student Thomas Nylen shows that between 1913-1994 the mountain lost 25 percent of its glacial volume.

A study by Jon Reidel, geologist at North Cascades National Parks, indicates the rate of loss from 2003-2009 was 4.2 times faster than the rate through 1994 and there has been another 10 to 18 percent decline in volume.

“That is a shocking amount of lost water in a very short period of time,” Reidel said.

“As a glacier retreats, it exposes a huge amount of material that can be washed downstream,” Kennard said.

Rocks and sediment created by the grinding effect of glaciers are suddenly exposed to the elements, needing only water to begin moving down the mountain.

Finding sources of water are fairly easy on Mount Rainier. Kennard, Driedger and others point first to the glaciers themselves.

Of greatest concern is stagnant ice – where the glaciers have stopped flowing down the mountain. As snow and ice accumulation slows on the upper mountain, a glacier cannot replenish itself as the lower portions melt away.

“The ice stops flowing,” said Edward Josberger, a glaciologist with the geological survey’s office in Tacoma. “The body of ice has been disconnected from its source, so it just sits there.”

At some point, the stagnant ice separates from the retreating main glacier.

Scientists now believe the lower 2,500 feet of the Nisqually Glacier is stagnant.

“There certainly is a threat,” Driedger said. “There is a section of the Nisqually Glacier that is in large part disconnected from the upper glacier.”

‘LIKE GOD HAD A FIRE HOSE’

As these stranded masses of ice sit, they slowly collect water as they melt and as rain falls upon them. The water is stored inside or below the glacier until something triggers a sudden release of water.

The so-called “glacial outbursts” can be minor or significant.

A 1951 flood at Longmire, the only known flooding of the parks’ operational center, was blamed on a glacial outburst from the Nisqually Glacier. Although the 2006 flood came within feet of washing away buildings such as the emergency operations center, no water made its way into Longmire, where many buildings sit 35 below river level.

The water in an outburst is the final element needed to spark powerful and destructive debris flows capable of carrying tons of boulders, trees, rocks and sediment downstream at speeds up to 20 miles per hour.

“Debris flows are the most destructive and most erosive form of landslides,” Kennard said. “They start out really small, but within 100 yards they’re 100 feet deep or so. For every meter it moves downstream, it bulks up by 10 cubic meters.”

Kennard talked about a debris flow on Van Trump Creek in 2001.

It began with water melting from the Kautz Glacier on a hot summer day. The water found a weak spot in the moraine – the rocks pushed to the side as the glacier made its way down the mountain – and flowed into the Van Trump drainage.

“It was like God had a fire hose,” Kennard said, describing the force of the water hitting rocks downstream.

The resulting debris flow helped raise the level of the streambed at the confluence with the Nisqually River – a total of 38 feet since 1900.

The largest known debris flow in park history occurred Oct. 2-3, 1947, when heavy rains fell on the end of the Kautz Glacier.

The ensuing debris flow traveled 5.5 miles and buried Nisqually-Paradise Road under 28 feet of mud and debris, according to a report by Driedger and fellow scientist Joseph Walder.

About 50 million cubic yards of sediment were moved by the flow.

“They have a density that allows these boulders to float,” Driedger said. “They can girdle trees, can move bridges.”

A 12-foot-high boulder sits amid the Tahoma Creek bed filled with watermelon-size rocks, perhaps four miles upstream from the Nisqually-Paradise Road. A debris flow pushed it downstream in 2005. Since then, subsequent flows have carried it another 300 yards downstream.

A new concern, based on recent field studies, is surges of sediment, said park geologist Scott Beason.

Walking along Tahoma Creek, about two miles upstream from where it crosses under the Nisqually Road, Beason pointed out new mounds of sediment that recent debris flows had left behind. There have been at least 30 debris flows down the creek since 1967.

“It’s like a mouse swallowed by a snake,” Beason said. “These surges keep pushing the sediment downstream, right toward the bridge.”

THE NEXT STEP

Dave Uberuaga has seen the power of debris flows and flooding, as well as the mountain’s ability to absorb the damage. As the park’s superintendent, he also understands the threat such occurrences pose to visitor access.

“We are going to have events in the future that will cause damage,” he said. “It’s just a question of how much and where, and how you deal with it.

“Our strategy is thinking about it now before we get hit so we can decide how we’re going to react.”

Uberuaga said the park’s top managers will review the report from Kennard and Beason, and then look to determine the best fix for each spot. The park will need to contract with an engineering firm to do that and develop a cost estimate.

Among the options are using more multi-ton jetty rock to shore up riverbanks, building “engineered logjams” to slow and change the course of a river and sending excavators into streambeds to remove rock and sediment.

Raising roadways and installing more and larger culverts also are possible.

In developing possible fixes, Uberuaga faces two challenges – finding money and changing long-held philosophies among his own staff members and in other agencies.

“It’s dialing for dollars,” he said. “I have to go out and look for the money. But we have to compete for so many compelling needs throughout the Park Service.”

The park recently submitted a $5.78 million proposal to build 15 engineered logjams along the Nisqually River from the park entrance to Longmire.

It was rated No. 1 among new funding requests in the Park Service’s West region. Still, under normal circumstances, it might be four to five years before the park sees the money.

“It was recognized as an important need and project for Mount Rainier,” said assistant superintendent Randy King. “But now we have to compete with all these other projects on a national level.”

All the projects are vying for a share of $100 million for capital projects within the nation’s parks.

Mount Rainier’s prospects are difficult when up against requests from locations such as National Park of American Samoa. Staff members there have been working out of a former car dealership an hour from the park since a 2009 earthquake-spawned tsunami leveled the park’s visitor center, destroying all its contents, including the park’s curatorial collections. The Park Service has spent $1.3 million just to replace vehicles. Another $1.3 million has been requested to replace exhibits and find a better temporary location. There is no cost estimate for building a new visitor center.

“The demands for infrastructure improvements – there are hundreds of millions of dollars of backlogged work – are amazing,” Uberuaga said.

Adding to the frustration is that while making a reasonable investment now could save money in the long term, there isn’t money available now to do more than the necessary work.

“If you give us $7 million now so we can save $25 million down the road is a hard sell in these times of tight budgets,” Uberuaga said. “There’s just not a lot of money right now.”

Bureaucratic rules also tie the hands of park staffers when using the $30 million being sought from the federal highway bill to repave Nisqually-Paradise Road.

“Unfortunately we’re working within the (resurfacing, restoration and rehabilitation) program, and it has certain constraints,” said Eric Walkinshaw, the park’s civil engineer.

Funds from the program can be spent only on repair and repaving projects.

Federal Highway Administration officials have relented enough, he said, to allow the park to use some money to do preventative work in the Kautz Creek area.

“We’re not going to spend millions and millions on a bridge, but we’re going to spend some extra money there,” Uberuaga said. “Federal Highways realizes that’s a real threat.”

The plan is to use stone to harden the sides of the roadway and then use riprap to fill some of the ditch on the north side of the road.

“We anticipate when (the ditch) fills up, the water will go over the road, into the forest and down to the Nisqually River,” Uberuaga said. “Yes, we’ll have to close the road, but it will be there when the flood is done.”

Strengthening the road makes sense, because raising the road only increases its damming effect, Uberuaga said.

Such work, he said, reflects a change in thinking. The same applies to the use of engineered logjams. Current practices typically call for more and bigger rocks to armor riverbanks.

Uberuaga uses Sunshine Point Campground as an example.

Plenty of riprap was in place along the Nisqually River bank, he said, but the raging 2006 flood blasted through the rocks, washing away five acres and seven of 18 campsites. The campground has yet to reopen.

In cases where riprap withstands floods, it occasionally shifts the problem downstream.

That was the case at Milepost 6 along Nisqually-Paradise Road. A hardened wall upstream created a firehose effect, cutting into the riverbank at that spot, Kennard said. The park earlier this year installed an engineered logjam to protect the bank.

“We had some good riprap at Sunshine Point, but that didn’t help,” he said. “The same old fixes are not always going to work. Using riprap and large rocks won’t always be the best fix.

“It will be a cultural shift. What can we do differently with wood and rock to protect the park.”

“We’ve learned that many of the traditional methods don’t always work,” King added. “We have to be open to trying new things.”

Events over the last decade have raised awareness of the threats to the park’s main roadway, Uberuaga said.

“I’ve never worried about maintaining (the road) for the long term, but I know we’ll have times with temporary closures like we did in 2006 and 2009,” he said.

“We’ve had a taste of those climatic changes. Our strategy is thinking about it now before we get hit so we can decide how we’re going to react.”

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/12/06/v-printerfriendly/1454179/receding-glaciers-on-mount-rainier.html#ixzz17NNxZs5L

Allan and Damian, 2007
photo by John Chao
It is with great sadness that we report the passing of one of our most faithful volunteers this afternoon. Many of you know Damian as the golden retriever service dog of volunteer Allan Dreyer. But Damian was a friend and volunteer in his own right, one dedicated to a lifetime of service who spread good will wherever he went. He died peacefully at his home this afternoon at 2:45pm.

Few people know that Damian, in fact, had his own volunteer agreement, signed with his paw print, documenting his important role on our staff. According to this agreement, Damian’s duties were to assist Mount Rainier National Park volunteer Allan Dreyer, as well as “spreading good will and good cheer among park visitors and employees; inspiring his coworkers with his dedication, enthusiasm, and positive demeanor; helping to bring positive attention to the volunteer program at Mount Rainier; and increasing the species diversity of our volunteer staff.” While there was certainly a tongue-in-cheek element to Damian’s paperwork, his service was beyond question, and he admirably accomplished all of the things listed in his position description and more.

Above all, Damian loved the outdoors, and Allan consistently reported that Damian would perk up when they drove up the road into Mount Rainier National Park. Even when old age led to creaky joints at lower elevations, he would happily bound through the mountain snow like a puppy, accompanying Allan on snowshoe walks or, in the summer, along the trails as a meadow rover. He loved people just as much, and was infinitely patient with visitors who wanted to pet his long, soft, orange fur.

Allan and Damian became volunteers together in August of 2003. Like so many volunteers, Allan had hiked the trails of the park for years before a chance encounter with another volunteer convinced him to ask about joining our program himself. It quickly became apparent that Damian was an equally valuable addition to our crew. Allan wrote a note to the newsletter of Dogs for the Deaf, from whom Damian was adopted in 1994, proudly announcing the news:

“I wanted you to know that Damian has officially been made a VIP — that is a ‘Volunteer in the Park,’ at Mount Rainier. The US Park Service used Damian’s paw print in lieu of a signature. Damian is a true greeter when we work at the park. When people enter the lodge to sign up for our park-led snowshoe hikes, he greets each of them. Our snowshoe hikes have about twenty people per hike. One of the rangers was complaining to me that the people were raving over Damian and thanking us for having Damian on the hike. The ranger said, ‘What about me? I was leading the hike.’ So they thanked him for coming along, too.

“Damian is one LOVED dog. People always come up and ask questions about him. He, in turn, loves everyone. The rangers at Mount Rainier love him to pieces. There are few people who are on our hikes who haven’t at least one photo of Damian to take home with them.”

Our friend died October 28, 2010, at the age of 17, after a long span of declining health. He is survived by his companion and friend, Allan Dreyer, and Allan’s wife Lisa, who live in Tacoma. They plan to spread Damian’s ashes in the national park he loved so much.
POSTED BY KEVIN BACHER AT 4:42 PM 0 COMMENTS LINKS TO THIS POST
LABELS: ALLAN DREYER, DAMIAN

MOUNT RAINIER VOLUNTEERS

Sunrise Lodge, Snack Bar and Gift Shop are scheduled to open July 2.

The Sunrise Visitor Center will remain closed for the season for interior
rehabilitation and installation of new exhibits. Visitor information and
book sales will be located in the Sunrise Ranger Station and Lodge for this
season.

Sunrise, at an elevation of 6,400 feet, is the highest point in the park that
can be reached by road. With approximately six feet of snow still on the ground,
hiking trails in the Sunrise area remain snow covered.

White River Campground also will open to camping at noon Friday.

The Mowich Lake Road is tentatively scheduled to open July 2. Visitors can
expect to find 4 to 5 feet of snow at the parking lot.

Most trails in the park are snow covered. For detailed information on
trail conditions, check the Mount Rainier web page and click on Quicklinks/ Hiking and Climbing/Current Trail and Backcountry
Conditions – or stop at a park visitor center.

and dining in the park.

Pre-recorded park information is available by calling 360-569-2211 and
choosing the menu of interest.

Read more: http://blog.thenewstribune.com/street/2010/06/23/sunrise-road-at-rainier-opens-friday/#ixzz0rilcW1Me

Due to heavy snow accumulation on the roadway, DOT crews temporarily closed Chinook Pass just after 7:30 a.m. on Saturday. Crews assessed the stability of the hillside on Sunday morning, and determined the avalanche risk is too great to allow traffic to safely cross Chinook Pass and Cayuse Pass.

Since Friday, Chinook Pass has received more than three feet of snow. More snow is forecast.

The Highway 410 Chinook Pass closure points are at Morse Creek (five miles east of the summit) and at Crystal Mountain Boulevard (eight miles northwest of the summit). Access to the Crystal Mountain Ski Resort from Highway 410 remains open.

DOT and the Mount Rainier National Park staff agreed to close Highway 123 (Cayuse Pass) for the season. The highway is closed within Mount Rainier National Park from the 4,675-foot Cayuse Pass summit at the junction of Highways 410 and 123 to Steven Canyon Road. DOT closes each pass for the winter due to high avalanche risk and hazardous driving conditions.

The $22.5 million work on the historic inn in Mount Rainier National Park , which closed the facility in October 2005, was necessary to strengthen the building against earthquakes, improve safety systems and help the grande dame withstand another 91 winters – so most of the construction was underground and behind walls.

Still, while shoring up crumbling foundations and strengthening supports, construction crews did return some of the inn’s historic luster. Visitors will see a new facade on the gift shop and fir flooring in the lobby and the dining room. The handcrafted furniture pieces, including the 14-foot grandfather clock and the restored vintage piano, are still in their customary locations in the lobby.

“We have something worth protecting here,” said Ellen Gage, the park’s historic architect. “We’ve done more preservation, but we looked for opportunities to do restoration.”

But budget overruns forced park officials to delay work on the Annex, which means no changes in the majority of the guest rooms.

As park management and Watts-Korsmo Joint Venture, the lead contractor, negotiated the final contract they realized that the work on the inn would cost about $5 million more than expected. That money was intended for work on the Annex, said park superintendent Dave Uberuaga.

“There were 250 to 300 items – such as the types of drainage around the building, types of heating systems, types of rock walls to be used – that we discussed,” Uberuaga said of the negotiations. “That’s when we decided not to proceed with work on the Annex.”

The retrofit of the Annex, housing 114 of the inn’s 121 guest rooms, could begin as soon 2013 if Congress approves the park’s budget request.

Congressman Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, will look to see if the Annex can be moved up in the line of National Park Service projects awaiting funding, said George Behan, Dicks’ chief of staff.

“There may be a chance to move it up in the queue. Norm has been working with the current Secretary (of Interior) Dirk Kempthorne and he has been supportive.”

UNFORESEEN CHALLENGES

About 150 construction workers spent more than 30 months battling snow, avalanches, rain, floods, wind and cold to revitalize the inn.

“The challenges up here were incredible. You could go anywhere west of the Mississippi and not find a job like this,” said Ken Hardy of Tacoma , general foreman for Watts-Korsmo.

Crews knew they would face extreme conditions working at an elevation of 5,400 feet. But they couldn’t predict a historic flood, above-average snowfall and unusually extreme winds.

Since the inn closed, more than 2,200 inches of snow have fallen at Paradise . Avalanches closed the road to the inn for two weeks in February. Paradise averages about 630 inches of snow a season.

“I grew up here, but I didn’t realize how much snow they get up here at Paradise ,” said Ron Case of Rochester , a painter for subcontractor Todd Robinson Painting Inc. of Tumwater.

“I worked on Bill Gates’ house several years ago,” Case said. “That’s the last (project) I worked on that was this challenging. But that’s what was fun about this job, it was something different every day.”

In November 2006, 17.9 inches of rain fell in 36 hours, flooding every corner of the park. Trails and campsites were washed away, and roads were cut by rivers and landslides. All told, $36 million in damage was done to the park. Crews’ access to the inn was restricted for six weeks and it slowed them down for four months.

“Early on we could get to the Community Building , hike over the bridge and then drive stranded National Park Service vehicles up to Paradise ,” said Jeff Robison, project manager for Watts-Korsmo.

Some days during the 2-year project, the temperature dipped to 5 degrees with winds at 40 mph, creating a wind chill of minus-22 degrees. In December 2006, winds reached 100 mph.

All the weather challenges delayed the project two weeks, but the construction crews encountered other unexpected developments.

Underneath the massive fireplaces and foundation, workers had to dig down to bedrock – 14 feet in some places – then pour in crushed rock to build the new foundation.

In the east wing, crews had to install additional steel beams to the ceilings and floors to stabilize them.

Painters needed to bring in propane heaters to get rooms warm enough to allow the wood finish to set.

“You open the walls and you find things no one knew existed,” Robison said.

PROTECTING, UTILIZING HISTORY

Determining how far back in time one goes to restore a historical structure isn’t an exact science.

“It’s professional judgment, on the part of a lot of people,” Uberuaga said. “What did the original craftsmen try to achieve and what is the best example of that for the longest time?”

Masons cleaned by hand each of the stones from the three massive fireplaces in the lobby and the dining room. For historic preservation, they weren’t allowed to remove the lichen that clung to the exterior stones. Above the fireplaces, striations of smoke left by decades of fires are still visible on the stones.

Carpenters used hand tools to re-create the mailboxes behind the reception desk.

Original entrance doors were discovered in the basement, and sidelights were found behind walls. Both features were incorporated into the restoration. That attention to detail was part of the effort to maintain the inn’s character.

“The idea fundamentally is to try and put everything back the way that it was. It’s a challenge to retain the historic fabric,” Uberuaga said. “It requires being sensitive to everything. We looked at the width and thickness of the shingles, how long they are, how far they overhang each other.”

The intent was to protect and, where possible, restore the historic look of the inn, which is why architects and engineers relied on historic photos as much as they did blueprints.

“Basically we’re mandated to protect the natural features, but also mandated to protect the historic structures,” said Eric Walkinshaw, park project manager.

What’s now the gift shop was a porch in 1917. The main entrance to the inn was in the corner between the gift shop and the back of the building. When the Annex was added in 1920, the main entrance was relocated.

“If we go back to the original intent, we would remove the gift shop, put the deck back there and reinstate the grand entry back there. That would be the purist version,” Walkinshaw said. “But we have to balance that with visitor enjoyment, and that includes the gift shop, the cafe.”

While much of the rehabilitation work is hidden by the floors and the walls, visitors will see a number of changes.

The most noticeable ones are in the gift shop and the cafe. The false roof that extended into the lobby is gone. Boxed clear fir beams run along the ceiling. The inn’s original doors now serve as an entrance on the shop’s west end. Carpenters added glass doors and windows.

“We were really guided by one historic photo. It showed before the snack bar was built. It showed light pouring in from that side of the building. We said, ‘What a difference having the light coming in from the east side,’” said Gage, the historic architect.

Other photos guided work on the reception desk, where carpenters rebuilt mailboxes and added architectural details.

“We had some pictures to work with. I had to use some hand tools to do some of the detail work,” said Jeff Baker of Shelton , a carpenter with Watts-Korsmo.

Workers built a portable saw to cut Alaskan yellow cedar logs used on the reception desk, the stairs and in the lobby.

“Many of the log shapes we needed to re-create we couldn’t do with drawings,” said Robison, the project manager. “We had to walk in the building, check it out, go outside and then kind of carve the log on the portable saw.”

A FEELING OF FAMILIARITY

Some of the inn’s quirky aspects remain intact. The balcony and its nooks, added after the inn’s original opening in the early 20th century, were kept. They’re a favorite place to enjoy a cup of coffee, play a board game or recap the day’s outdoor adventures.

In a corner of the dining room, hidden from diners but visible to employees, is a small closet used by busboys. Untouched by construction crews, names and messages from previous inn employees still cover the wall and the doors. Some signatures date to the early 1950s. One employee wrote: “Can I survive another year?”

Also visible is a caricature of the “Unknown Waiter,” who entertained guests during Saturday night talent shows in the 1970s.

“He came out with a bag on his head and he would sing. It was a good thing he had the bag. He was bad,” said Melinda Simpson, operations manager for Guest Services Inc.

The renovation also revealed a number of relics, including ski goggles from the ’20s and ’30s, cigarette and tobacco tins, a photo album and a copy of the Seattle Daily Times dated Sept. 11, 1927 . The headline read “City, State Honor Lindy Tuesday,” marking the pending arrival in Seattle of Charles Lindbergh aboard his Spirit of St. Louis.

Some of those items will be on display in the new visitor center being built nearby.

And the next time major work is done at Paradise, crews might find similar items. Many of the workers signed their names to a now-covered wall between the gift shop and the cafe.

Baker, the carpenter, left behind a hard hat and a vest in a space in the wall. Hardy, the Watts-Korsmo foreman, left behind his thoughts.

“I wrote a poem,” he said. “It took me a few nights to write it. But there’s this sense of pride being able to follow our grandfathers and the work they did.”

Those mementos reflect the sense of accomplishment among workers, Hardy said.

As workers such as Baker and Case were making the finishing touches in late April, Guest Services Inc. employees were racing to prepare the inn for the first guests, who are scheduled to arrive Friday. But the pressure of refurnishing the inn didn’t faze Simpson.

As dozens of workers carried in mirrors, mattresses, bed frames and dressers, Simpson’s smile lit up the lobby. She first worked at the inn in 1973, spending 18 years at the park. She returned in November to run Guest Services.

“It’s like coming home. I know the building, I know the furniture,” she said. “It’s a remarkable place. How do you not come in here and say ‘Wow?’”

Jeffrey P. Mayor: 253-597-8640; blogs.thenewstribune.com/adventure

Being a “Mount Rainier VIP” (did you realize that volunteers are labeled “VIPs” because they are “Volunteers In Parks?”) allowed me to recently take a private tour of the new Jackson Visitor Center and remodeled Paradise Inn.

Both are still under construction (which has consumed the Paradise upper lot for the last 2 summers) but thankfully, that construction is drawing to a close this year. The Paradise Inn will re-open in May and the new Jackson Visitor Center is scheduled to re-open this October.

Exploring the bowels of a major construction site was a fascinating and educational experience. The first notable surprise was how many people were actually involved in the project, and the variety of different tasks they were all doing.

Project safety manager Derek Burr (my tour guide) says there are about 30-40 people working on the visitor center site on any given day. The various specialists include (but are not limited to!):

• Heavy equipment operators
• Carpenters
• Pipe fitters
• Sprinkler pipe fitters
• Plumbers
• Electricians
• Sheet rock workers
• Earth workers
• HVAC technicians
• Iron workers
• Sheet metal workers

Another interesting fact about the visitor center construction site is that it features a “Dance Floor.” Not your Saturday Night Fever variety, but a giant platform — nicknamed the Dance Floor — that is suspended 24 feet in the air. Above that false floor is another 24 more feet of scaffolding that enables workers access to the fifty-foot high pitched ceilings.

Burr notes that working on the high ceiling was one of the most challenging elements of the project. The Dance Floor was created because they couldn’t fit a “lift” inside the doorway of the building.

Another cool feature of this project — designed to address the weather challenges of Paradise — is a scaffolding that extends beyond the roof-line by 10 feet. “That way that people can work on the outside of the building from the inside, without being killed by snow falling off the roof,” says Burr.

There are even more people working at the Paradise Inn– 40-50, says Burr. The goal is to rehabilitate the 86-year old building so that it retains its rustic feel but can better withstand the ravages of time and weather.

To make the building stronger while keeping the historic atmosphere, many of the original beams, planks, and logs in the walls and floors were taken out, reinforced with concrete and steel, and then put back. The Inn has seen a lot of wear and tear over the years. Earthquakes and large snow-loads have made the floor uneven, pushed on the walls and created gaps and even some trenches throughout the structure.

One such trench in the corner of the dining room was so big that Burr wondered if “they were gonna dig up some skeletons?” Seriously though, an NPS archaeologist did examine the area and thankfully, no skeletons were found (Remember… Redrum…).

One big challenge for this type of construction project is to keep employees working at Paradise. “It’s not an easy job,” says Burr. To those of us who visit Paradise for those gorgeous views and hikes, it might be hard to imagine what could be so difficult about working there. (It beats a cubicle, doesn’t it?) But the commute is quite long and many of the workers reside in temporary housing. And then of course, there is always the threat of crashing your truck on a slick icy road that is threatened by avalanches, or the joy of digging it out of the snow daily.

Burr, however, has enjoyed the job and his surroundings. “Some people don’t even like to look at the view. But I take as many pictures as I can.” Photos by Burr, Agiewich and NPS.

re-printed from Mount Rainier Climbing

posted by Rebecca at Thursday, March 27, 2008