Red Light, Green Light
Sylvan Pass: Sometimes an Entrance to Yellowstone National Park
By David Nolt, 1-03-08
Photo courtesy of Yellowstone National Park.
Avalanche-prone Sylvan Pass, which connects Cody, Wyoming to the interior of Yellowstone National Park, is currently open for oversnow travel. Wait, no, it’s closed. Nope, open. Closed. Wait, it’s definitely open. For now.
Between December 29, 2007 and New Year’s Day, Park Service officials have closed the pass twice due to avalanche conditions. Using howitzers and helicopters for avalanche mitigation, the Park Service reopened the pass on the same days of closures, but the troubled recreation travel corridor continues to claim the time of Park Service staff and precious, limited federal dollars.
“It is a challenging place for us to work,” Yellowstone National Park Spokesman Al Nash admits. “It’s a challenging job that we’ve been doing for a long time.”
Since 1973, to be precise, and despite a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in 2006 with a preferred alternative of closing the pass in the winter, Park Service employees continue to open the dangerous pass to the tune of roughly $200,000 each winter.
Discussion of closing Sylvan Pass first began to gain steam in March 2006, according to Nash. In the 2006 EIS the Park Service documented concerns over the level of danger for employees clearing the pass and the high cost of avalanche mitigation measures. Employees must travel across 20 avalanche paths to get to Sylvan Pass for howitzer operations, and flying helicopters in the area is also very dangerous and expensive.
For Tim Stevens of the National Parks Conservation Association, the cost, environmental impacts and human safety issues related with avalanche mitigation do not warrant keeping the recreational route open, especially when considering the low number of visitors entering the park through the east entrance in the winter.
“To my knowledge, it is the only National Park Service unit that does avalanche control solely for recreational access,” Stevens says.
Snowmobilers and snowmobile businesses in the Cody area say closing the pass would be a major hit to their winter economy, and Wyoming legislators and Gov. Dave Freudenthal have argued adamantly to keep the pass open. The Park Service was set to move ahead with the EIS alternative of closing Sylvan Pass this winter, but at the last minute released a Record of Decision (ROD) on the winter-use plan to keep the pass open. The ROD also included changes in the controversial numbers of snowmobiles allowed in the park.
The Wyoming attorney general’s office filed a petition in a Cheyenne federal court on December 13th seeking a review of the Yellowstone National Park winter-use plan. Regardless of one’s opinions Sylvan Pass or caps on snowmobiles allowed in the park, no one is quite sure why the Park Service changed their tune in the final ROD.
“You can only assume there was tremendous political pressure on the park to change its decision, and who knows how high up that pressure came from,” Stevens surmises. “...at the 11th hour and the 59th minute, where did the change come from?”
Yellowstone National Park Spokesman Al Nash says he is not in a good place to speak about political pressure surrounding the changes, but that some groups involved with the process were aware of “political activity beyond the boundaries of Wyoming.”
“There has been very vocal input from the community of Cody on this issue for over a year before the EIS,” Nash explains. “Our goal has always been to look at this issue by including input from the broad range of groups involved...We don’t make our decisions in a vacuum.”
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THEY should pay for this rescue!!
"South Dakota man dies in avalanche !!"
By Boomerang Staff / Laramie,WY - 1/3/2008
A South Dakota man was killed when he was buried by an avalanche while snowmobiling in the French Creek Drainage area in the Snowy Range on Wednesday afternoon.
Dale Wagner was about half way up the drainage when the avalanche hit at approximately 2:11 p.m., according to Albany County Sheriff’s Lt. Mike Garcia. Wagner was with Dustin Arthur, 28, Riley Pugh, 22, and Ryan Wagner, 20. The four men were above the area where four other men, Brian Bertsch, 40, Eric Bertsch, 43, Gary Wagner, 46 and Todd Beckett were snowmobiling. All of the men are from Miller, S.D.
Garcia said the four men at the bottom of the drainage did not see the avalanche, but they heard it.
Dale Wagner, Ryan Wagner, Pugh and Arthur were swept away by the slide and buried in the deep snow. Beckett, Brian Bertsch, Eric Bertsch and Gary Wagner returned to the area and began digging the others out of the snow. They were able to get all four of the men out and called for help.
“The first one (Dale Wagner) passed on — he died,” Garcia said. “A second one was injured.”
The initial report said that one man had died and another man was critically injured. Garcia said that two AirLife helicopters from Northern Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, Colo., were called to the scene to evacuate the men. However, all seven survivors refused treatment, Garcia said.
Deputies from the Albany County Sheriff’s Office, EMT/firefighters with the Laramie Fire Department, members of the Nordic Ski Patrol and the patrol from the Snowy Range Ski Area responded to the area and headquartered in the Snowy Mountain Lodge, eight miles west of Centennial. One of the helicopters landed in the parking lot of the lodge, while the other flew into the mountains. The road that runs past the lodge was blocked as snow machine enthusiasts watched from the parking lot.
Garcia said one of the members of the Nordic Ski Patrol reported two avalanches earlier this week. He said avalanches are one of the many dangers associated with winter sports activities and the recent snow and weather conditions have increased the probability of avalanche activity.
Avalanche control crews must run a gauntlet of avalanche runs, in order to reach a 105mm howitzer platform used to trigger or “shoot down” avalanches on the pass. The howitzer and a crew shed are midway along a 5,000-foot stretch of highway that has 20 avalanche runs on the mountain slope to the north of the highway -- the aptly named Avalanche Peak.
During the 2005-06 winter season, 947 people entered Yellowstone through the East Entrance, via 635 snowmobiles and 23 snowcoaches. Winter traffic through the entrance was estimated to be 12 snowmobiles per day last season and one snowcoach every three to four days.
According to Yellowstone Park spokesman Al Nash, the park’s annual budget for its avalanche control program is $167,965. That includes:
* $46,168 for the howitzer.
* $50,297 for a contract helicopter that drops charges on the slopes (at $5,000 per mission).
* $43,000 for avalanche forecasting.
* $15,000 for training.
* $13,500 for unexploded ordnance mitigation.
On a per capita basis, the Sylvan Pass avalanche control program worked out to $177.37 per visitor last winter.
Winter traffic via the East Entrance peaked in fiscal year 2001 at 6,457 and has declined each year since then.
-- Casper Star Tribune, 3/5/07.
Why are U.S. taxpayers paying for winter tourism businesses based in Cody?
The Park Service seems to be bent on making the national parks, at least the sexy ones, private reserves for park staff. Like the words on the arch at Gardiner don't matter any more.
This is WAY different than keeping the Northeast or North gates open, where all that is required is a simple plow; or the West gate open to snow vehicles, which is virtually flat.
Frankly, just the thought of firing howitzers and dropping charges from aircraft in a National Park is repugnant....especially in the name of "recreation". One has to wonder how much wildlife has been inadvertently killed over the years.
Regarding wildlife, I quote Frank Craighead Jr. Ph.D. in "Track of the Grizzly" .......grizzly bear dens..."ranged in altitude from 7800 to 9200 feet". Sylvan Pass is located at 8530 feet (guess you must be thinking of the Beartooth?) This would be right in the heart of grizzly bear denning elevations. There is a host of smaller animals (both hibernating and not) that might be found at these elevations in the winter, including (but not limited to) pika, which are becoming rarer and rarer due to global warming.
167,000 dollars to keep this pass open for less than 1,000 visitors! Come on!! (Perhaps we should charge each one 177.00 surcharge...put the cost where it belongs!) Maybe the guiding restrictions do have something to do with that, but those restrictions are a fact of life and aren't going away. West Yellowstone and Mammoth seem to be surviving. There will never be the hordes of unrestricted snowmobiles that we had in the past, and that's a good thing. I remember being in the park in the winter in the early nineties, and not being able to breathe because of the exhaust.
As for the Park Service, they are apparently on Cody's side in this. Else they wouldn't be ignoring their own science, regarding both the pass and snowmobile use itself.
For the record, I live in Livingston, Mt. I spend about 300 days a year in the park. I have ridden snowmobiles, snowcoaches, skis and snowshoes in the winter in the park. I have spent quite a bit of time in the Sylvan Pass, East Gate area (photographing grizzly bears as a matter of fact). I have climbed Avalanche Peak (many years ago). I have packed the Thoroughfare and the Bechler. I have several friends (some only have high school educations!!!) who work in the Park and have, on occasion, done volunteer work there myself.
I think that I am reasonably familiar with the park.
This kind of wastefulness is one reason why we are paying 80 bucks for a park pass.
Study after study after study has shown that wildlife is more stressed by humans on foot/skis/snowshoes/roller skates, etc than they are by vehicles. I have only lived east of Yellowstone for a few years, but I am seeing more and more grizzlies over here than I did 5 or 10 years ago, so I guess the hibernating bears aren't waking up grouchy and leaving are they? Of course they may be trying to escape the hoards of wolf watchers in the Lamar.
As for the increase in price of the passes, they have to pay for the studies to try to keep ordinary people out some way. And of course there are all of those subsidized uses. Reduced or free passes, free back country camping, not charging a surcharge on foreign tourists, lots of things go into that.
I read an article the other day, it may have been in the
"Cody paper, but it suggested NPS consider closing the north entrance, open the NE entrance and keep that road plowed since that would only involve a small section for NPS. Folk from Cooke and Silvergate could then still have access to Cody and it would cut down on animal fatalities in the Lamar, save plowing that very long stretch to Cooke City, cut down the stress on what elk are left, etc. I think it might be an idea worth considering. I don't know what it costs to maintain that road form Mammoth to Cooke, but plenty I'll bet. That would probably be a considerable savings right there.
I would like to see a breakdown on what it costs per person per visit summer and winter, and if it costs more net (taking into consideration increased entrance fees for snowmobilers) at one time than another, and for each means of transportation. Or are snowmobilers actually giving skiers a free ride?
Something to think about.
1. The Park Service has NEVER been on Cody's side . Far from it. They are universally loathed in Cody , where I live and write from , because of their constant duplicity and bureaucratic capriciousness about All Things East Entrance . We used to get along great ...several Park administrations ago , anyway . But not for the past fifteen years. It is a gross misperception to believe Cody has any clout here and is pulling the Park Service's neckties hither and yon.
2. The alleged Avalanche danger posed by Sylvan Pass is mostly a red herring. I began snowmobiling up and over Sylvan in the mid-1960's , long before the public had the machines we did . We were given Ski-Doo prototypes by Bombardier's executive that had a cabin near Cooke City. We also had a private 12-passenger Bombardier snowcoach that we used in Sunlight-Crandall-Cooke City in the 1950's thru early 70's...it's still being used by the sawmill owners on Cooke Pass, last I knew. Our prototype doubletrack Ski-Doo , later marketed as the Alpine 69 R with an Austrian rotary engine , was the trailbreaker and did " avalanche control " on Sylvan , back when we had real winters and much more snowfall. There was no Park Service presence on Sylvan then...we pioneered the place.We did all our own " grooming". We found the avalanches amusing, and challenging. But never life threatening---because we had enough sense to know when to go and when to turn back. The slides we came upon were never much of an impediment. We assumed all the risk. There was nobody at the East Gate to turn us around and do anything for us. We owned eastern Yellowstone in Winter, and Sylvan was fabulous. I also XC ski and snowshoe. After about 1975 when snowmobiles were becoming popular, I came to despise their owner's obnoxiousness and the 2-stroke machines abuse. Even a fair number of my own blood relatives. There is no habitat in Yellowstone for mechanized Fun Pigs who require alcohol. But the mountains and Sylvan Pass never threatened me or my life that I didin't fully understand where I was and what I was doing. You must respect the mountains, especially in winter. The high country can be a cruel mistress.
3. Having said that , Winter Travel by personal snowmobile or coach is about as benign as it gets . It's all on groomed highways. You can't leave the established roads. At least if you obey the rules. But here is what is missing from the Park Service Winter Use equation : the Park Service has woefully fallen short of providing personnel , enforcement , route management , and any substantial administrative presence to winter users. Especially on the East Entrance corridor. All the latter-day winter use rules pertaining to Sylvan Pass were mainly an effort by the Park Service to dispense its obligations and excuse itself from the workload. They did this by first by fiat; then by regulation ; and finally by trumping pseudo- science and lining up allies in the environmentalist community by pumping half truths and made up scenarios into the mix . I have never EVER heard anyone say that Sylvan Pass avalanche control via US Army cannon fire or helicopter munitions dropped at 11,000 feet on the boundary ridge and the crest of Hoyt Peak where the cornices and snow slabs spawn had a detrimental effect on the Grizzlies or anything else living up there...not in the 33 years since the Grizzly was listed as Threatened has that been put into a Sylvan Pass context as a negative or anything else, till now. And I strongly dispute that assertion...the Grizzlies are thriving up there. Yes, they do den up high on the back side of Sylvan in the Crow Creek cirques. The effects of the explosions seem to be nil, but the Bears aren't saying. Too busy proliferating. Ditto the line that groomed snowmobile trails provide an unnatural corridor for Bison to migrate out in the winter---the Mary Meagher Theorem--- how silly . The same 9 male bison leave Yellowstone over Sylvan Pass in October while the road is open and winter 25 miles down the Shoshone River , and return to the Park in the Spring with the bluebirds. So that argument can go on the junk heap, too. Any other percieved wildlife threats from high explosive and military munitions you'd like to bring up ? If your really wanted to hang your hat on a science argument, then let's talk about thousands of diesel-belching tour buses , tens of thousands of Harley and Honda two stroke motorcycles , and the gas guzzling motorhomes ...in SUMMER , when wildlife abound. Can 3/4 of a million internal combustion engines that you'all use to enjoy Yellowstone be good ? Conveniently Ignored ?? Let's not be too hypocritical here. The science of Sylvan Pass is bogus.
4. I am an active environmentalist , by the way. But I am also a realist. My opinions expressed here are very counter to the elitist environmentalists. The are coming wholly from my own lifetime of experience, tempered in the fires of rhetorical . The bottom lines are , when it comes to opening Sylvan Pass to winter travel , it is not about money and avalanches ...not at all. It's about public access to the public's park , in all season...and the Park Service's utter abdication of their mission to enable just that , by bureaucratic obfuscation. Again I have to say the reason that East Gate useage is so low is the simple raw-boned fact that the Park Service has strangled the Pass by fiat and reguation , not from the ublic's diminished demand to use Sylvan Pass. If the Park Service really cared, they would place a couple of those portable Yurts or cabins-on-wheels at the Sylvan Lake picnic area for winter use, before the snow comes in November. They would have First Aid supplies, a satellite phone, and be staffed by helpful personnel from Lake as well as the East Gate. Avalanche control would be staged from the west , not east, using the Sylvan Lake staging area. The 27 miles from the East Entrance to Fishing Bridge can be formidable. I would think the Park Service would want a waystation up there, and be accomodating to the public's winter recreation rather than a gross impediment. And for god's sakes, get RID OF THE GUIDE RULE that says snowmobilers must have a commercially licensed guide to enter and use Yellowstone in winter. That was done entirely to discourage use, and to relieve the Rangers of real work. Wrong on both counts. Besides, it is an insult to responsible snowmobilers to tell them they can't run their machines on groomed highways without adult supervision and be dunned $ 200 a day for the privilege. That is beyond the pale, but perfectly reflective of the Park Service's obdurant attitude. Can you maybe begin to understand some of Cody's exasperation with the Park Service here? I hope so. Finally , I largely despise snowmobilers and mechanized off-road vehicle use of any kind. But I cannot sit by and let the Park Service use junk science, bad management, and bureaucratic misfeasance and environmental proxies to dictate to the public the terms for using our public recreation corridors. As much as I despise motorheads and fun pigs , we all look down on the treachery and egregious policies of Yellowstone's management of Sylvan Pass in winter.
Winter at Old Faithful: 1.44 ppm. Summer, same location: 0.78 ppm.
At West Gate: Winter: 2.8 ppm. Summer, same location: 1.4 ppm.
These are from Yellowstone's environmental impact report. Who'd a thought! Funny thing about air pollution (especially particulates): for some reason it is worse in the winter. There is no question that the winter air quality is much better than in the past, at least at these measuring stations.
However, this doesn't even have anything to do with that. This is about what makes economic sense. When we get a democrat in the White House, hopefully this whole snowmobile issue will be put to bed once and for all. Meantime, if it made more economic sense to plow Chief Joseph and close the North Gate, I would say "go for it". Would I be disappointed that I couldn't get into the park? Yeah. Would I be crying about it? No. Maybe I'd move to Cody. Or Cooke City. The reason I moved to Livingston in the first place is because I wanted year round wheeled access to the park. I have a friend who lives in Cody and drives WAY around in the winter. I asked why he didn't move to Livingston. He said taxes are better in Wyoming. OK. We all make choices. I can't get to the Tetons in the winter (without driving to h*ll and back)....I don't cry about it.
BTW, Dewey, I absolutely agree with you that the park in the winter time has become a "private preserve". Not for rangers, but for the rich. They really need to provide some sort of winter transportation in the interior that average folks can afford. Your right: 200.00 dollars a day for guides, 70.00 or 80.00 bucks one way to Canyon or Old Faithful on a coach (per person)....ridiculous! Come on! You want people to give up their snowmobiles (I do too), give them a reasonable (and affordable) alternative!
I don't believe snowmobiles should be allowed, but if they are guides are needed.....because not every snowmobiler is "responsible", just as not every driver is. Difference: snowmobiles can easily be driven just about anywhere, cars can't.
Marion, I share with you all the time: my opinions. You ain't taken, just as I ain't taken most of your's. This sure is fun though, eh?
I am very concerned about the tendency of some to attempt to push others out of the good spots because they see themselves as the only ones deserving to use those places. They will even attempt to push them off their own land because they don't like the way the owner uses it. It all seems to be part of the same picture.
Yep, you are right, this surely is fun, as long as we can disagree without getting nasty. I must warn you though, I am a pretty hard headed old hen!
Perhaps we need to take a look at the degree to which each and every use of Yellowstone is cost effective, (hint-none). Picking and choosing who and for what reason folks can use the park and who is going to be pushed out is an excercise in futility because too many folks think everyone else needs to be eliminated.