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By Mark Grossi
The Fresno Bee - June 1, 1998
Yosemite National Park - Dean Glenn dragged his car key down a 10-foot snowbank
next to Tioga Road and finally struck an aqua seam of ice.
There's the ice layer," said Glenn, a branch roads supervisor for Yosemite National Park. "That's something you worry about. The ice may have formed in December when it rained and then froze on the snow. Now we deal with it."
Ice on this slanted landscape in June worries everybody as Yosemite crews try to clear Tioga Road of snow. They keep one eye on the road and the other on the thick snow hanging from slick granite on the mountain.
Ice and slick granite in June add up to avalanches. It may be late spring, but Yosemite's high country looks and feels like late winter with 9-degree evenings and a snowpack twice its normal depth.
Yet, in June, when temperatures sometimes rise like an eagle on a sudden updraft, snow melts beneath the ice and the ice soon connects with the granite. Tons of it can slide off with little warning.
A killer June avalanche broke loose just that way three years ago. Tons of ice and snow knocked over a Yosemite bulldozer, killed the driver and changed the way the park clears this east-west artery across the Sierra.
The tragedy also toned down the annual political bickering that has accompanied the reopening of this tourist route for decades.
A timely opening of Tioga can mean hundreds of thousands of extra dollars for merchants, hotel owners and others. Businesses near the park at times have pushed to get the road open as early as possible
The accident added a different perspective to the annual road-opening issue. Now, with about half the roadway cleared on this 46-mile ribbon across California's biggest mountain range, there is a bit of impatience but no sign of haste.
Mono County crews have plowed almost 10 miles from the Tioga Pass gate on one side, and Yosemite crews have gone about 18 miles from Crane Flat on the other.
By middle or late June, park officials hope to reopen Tioga, which closes each fall after the first snowstorm.
With each passing day, safety measures become more important for plowing crews.
The Yosemite crews work with Norm Wilson, 69, an avalanche consultant who has been judging the danger in snowpacks since the 1950s. Though no avalanches have charged down the granite this year, the danger is just warming up, Wilson says.
"If we get 24 hours of temperatures above freezing, we start to have problems," he said during a tour of the road. "It's even worse when we get 36 hours. For our purposes, a good freeze is helpful."
Wilson watches over more than 20 avalanche-prone areas along the road. Four areas are of greatest concern. They include Olmsted Point - where the fatal avalanche happened three years ago - South Fork, Spring Hill and Dana Meadow.
If Wilson detects a lot of melting snow in these or other danger areas, he might detonate explosives, hoping to make the avalanche happen before workers plow the area.
The plowing continues while Wilson watches. Workers must make radio contact with Wilson whenever they enter or leave avalanche-prone areas. As one worker said, "They want to make sure you make it out the other side."
Workers also wear small transmitters that will send a signal and help searchers find them beneath the snow if they become trapped.
They also are schooled in survival techniques. Yosemite's Tioga Road opening and closing policy contains a safety section advising workers to stay on top of the snow and on their backs during an avalanche.
"Try to keep your hands and arms in front of your face when you come to a stop and try to punch out a breathing areas large as you can," the document said. "Do not cry out unless you can tell that someone is very near. Use the shrillest sound possible."
Below the instructions, a chart shows the survival odds based on how long someone is buried in the snow. The chance of survival is 85% for someone trapped less than 15 minutes. The odds are 50-50 after 45 minutes.
The sobering statistics add anxiety to the otherwise serene winter panorama at 8,000 feet.
"You know it's dangerous," said snow-plow operator Orval Rhoan, 63, who has been clearing Tioga since the 1970s. "An avalanche almost happened while I was at Olmsted in 1972. Oh yeah, I think about it."
Olmsted and avalanches were not huge concerns before the road was realigned between 1957 and 1961. It was redesigned from a narrow, meandering road to a modern highway, rising in elevation from 6,192 feet at Crane Flat to 9,945 at the Tioga Pass gate to the east.
Thirty-four of the road's 46 miles are above 8,000 feet, said Ed Walls, chief of Yosemite maintenance.
The length and elevation help make Tioga one of the most scenic highways in California. The realignment at Olmsted provided a particularly striking view of Tenaya Lake and other features.
But the old roadway wound behind the slippery granite dome at Olmsted Point, thus avoiding possible avalanches. Engineers, hoping to capture the sweeping views, designed the road to run below the smooth granite at Olmsted.
"Some people have wondered if it's the best place for a road," said park historian Jim Snyder. "Many decades ago, avalanches didn't happen very much because that scary old, narrow road ran where there were fewer avalanche problem areas. It was allowed to melt out and open later."
These days, later is not better for eastern Sierra businesses. Hotel business is off more than 50% in Lee Vining, say some managers. But they are not criticizing park managers.
"I can't say anything bad about the park in the last couple of years," said Lakeview Lodge owner Bill Banta in Lee Vining. "They've worked very hard, put in the time and done well in tough conditions."
Banta said he hopes the road opens by June 15. Each day the road remains closed beyond today costs tens of thousands of dollars in the business community, he said. Two weeks of waiting means hundreds of thousands of dollars or more.
Banta and others had to wait that extra two weeks in 1995, the year of the fatal avalanche. The park opened the road on June 30, the latest opening date in 40 years. He said everybody's business was hurt, but the message was clear.
"The death put a lot of reality into everybody," Banta said. "Safety really is the first thing you want. Nobody wants to see that happen again."
TIOGA ROAD OPENING DATES
1990 May 17
1991 May 26
1992 May 15
1993 June 3
1994 May 25
1995 June 30
1996 May 31
1997 June 13*
* Opened without restrooms and other services along the route. Those services opened June 27.
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