Extended shutdowns of Sylvan Pass prompted decision, owner says
Posted: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 12:00 am
POWELL (AP) - Two weeklong closures of Sylvan Pass just inside Yellowstone National Park within a month have caused one resort to close its doors for the winter.
"We can't work with this," said Bob Coe, owner of the Pahaska Tepee Resort.
Less than a month into the Yellowstone winter season, Sylvan Pass has been closed twice for five days each, due to avalanche danger. The first time occurred the week before Christmas. It was closed again starting Jan. 8 until last Friday afternoon, when a helicopter dispatched to clear the avalanche zone made its way to the area from Livingston, Mont.
The National Park Service said the company it has contracted with this year to manage avalanche danger on the pass with a helicopter couldn't arrive sooner because of high winds. The helicopter drops small bombs to trigger avalanches in areas where they would be a danger to people snowmobiling or skiing through the pass.
But Coe and others note that the Park Service still has a howitzer that had been used since the 1970s to control avalanches on the pass.
Some question whether the Park Service is using the pass closures to bolster its recent proposal to close the park's East Entrance to snowmobile traffic in the winter.
If the pass is closed and no snowmobiles are entering the east gate, the number of snowmobile visitors declines, thus supporting the Park Service claim that the East Entrance snowmobile numbers are minimal, said Park County Commissioner Marie Fontaine.
"It's set up for us to fail," Fontaine said.
Besides the lower number of people using the east gate in winter, the Park Service has said it proposed closing the pass during the winter because of the avalanche danger, the cost of preventing avalanches and environmental concerns. The agency spends $100,000 to $120,000 on avalanche control each winter.
Coe said Park Service personnel are advising snowmobilers at warming huts not to take Sylvan Pass down to Pahaska because they could be snowed in due to pass closures for up to five days.
"They've made it so we can't survive here," Coe said.