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

1792
British explorer Captain George Vancouver names the mountain Mount Rainier for his friend Rear Admiral Peter Rainier. (Rainier never visited his namesake peak.)

1833
Dr. William Tolmie, a Scottish physician at nearby Fort Nisqually, organizes an expedition to gather medicinal herbs. Guided by five Native Americans, he is probably the first white man to venture into what is now the park.

Late 1850s
James Longmire, an early Washington Territory settler who farms near Yelm Prairie, establishes the rough-hewn Packwood Trail. He guides many aspiring mountain climbers on this route from the Pacific Coast to Mount Rainier’s slopes.

1857
Army lieutenant August Valentine Kautz and his party travel for eight days to climb the summit. His Nisqually guide becomes snow-blind, his companions give up, and despite his perseverance, he is just 400 feet shy of the summit. However, he proves that Mount Rainier can be climbed.

1870
General Hazard Stevens and Philemon Van Trump make the first well-documented ascent of Mount Rainier. For more information on that intrepid group, click here.

1883
At age 63, James Longmire climbs to the summit with Philemon Van Trump and George Bayley. On the trip, Longmire’s horse wanders from camp to a mineral spring on Mount Rainier’s south side. When Longmire discovers his horse, he decides then and there to return to the idyllic spot. In 1884, he and his wife build Mineral Springs Resort, Mount Rainier’s first hotel.

1890
Fay Fuller, a schoolteacher from a small town near Olympia, becomes the first woman to climb the mountain. As visitation rises, a campaign is led to protect Mount Rainier by establishing it as a national park.

1899
Led by local communities and supported by scientific and conservation organizations, including the National Geographic Society, the campaign triumphs. President McKinley establishes Mount Rainier as the the nation’s fifth national park.

1911
President William H. Taft travels to Paradise in the first automobile to reach the area. (The auto has to be towed by horses the last several miles.)

1916
A trail system encircling the mountain, known today as the Wonderland Trail, is completed.

1929
“The Greathouse Accident” occurs when an entire six-person climbing party falls into a deep crevasse after sliding down Mount Rainier’s upper slopes. Ranger Charlie Browne leads efforts to save the injured climbers and recovers the bodies of a guide and client. He is awarded the first citation for heroism ever given by the U.S. Department of the Interior.

1930s
The Civilian Conservation Corps builds and repairs many park buildings, trails, and bridges, which are still used today.

1940s
The U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Ski Division trains on Mount Rainier during World War II.

1962
Mount Rainier is the training ground for the successful American expedition to Mount Everest.

1981
Project Pelion, a large group of climbers with disabilities, sets out to climb to the summit. It includes 7 visually impaired members, 2 hearing-impaired members, a one-legged Vietnam War veteran, and an epileptic member. Of the 11 members of the group, 9 reach the summit. The highest death toll in U.S. climbing history occurs when an ice avalanche on Ingraham Glacier kills 11 members of a 29-member climbing party.

1990
8,335 climbers attempt to reach the summit of Mount Rainier, and 4,534 are successful. “The Mountain” continues to be a mecca for climbers and sightseers from around the world.

2006

The Great Flood — A deluge dumps 36 inches of rain on the park, causing almost $40 million in damage.

2007

Mount Rainier National Park celebrates its 108th Anniversary.

The Fish and Wildlife forensics lab in Ashland, Ore., matched it to blood from the kill site in the park.

The Park Service says Harriman pleaded guilty in federal court to illegally taking wildlife. He was fined $500 and ordered to pay $2,500 restitution.

Categories: Breaking News, Outdoors

MOUNT RAINIER NATIONAL PARK — High avalanche danger and poor visibility have hindered search teams looking for a snowshoer missing in Mount Rainier National Park after an avalanche.

Park officials say the 22-year-old Lynnwood man disappeared during a day hike on snowshoes.

Kirk Reiser and his hiking partner 23-year-old Troy Metcalf left Paradise on Tuesday morning for a snowshoeing hike to Camp Muir. Park officials say they turned back because of poor visibility, heavy snow and high winds.

Along the way, Reiser disappeared in a snow slide. Metcalf looked for him for several hours but was unsuccessful. At dusk, he returned to Paradise and a search was launched Wednesday morning.

With more snow falling and high avalanche danger, a park spokesman says today’s search is likely to be limited.

Mount Rainier, Edith Creek

Originally uploaded by LivingWilderness.com

Sweet shot I found on Flickr..

Mt. Rainier Infrared

Originally uploaded by Cap’n Surly

Kind of like this one, just wanted to share it..