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NPS once touted Sylvan Pass use - By Carole Cloudwalker
This document was published online on Wednesday, April 04, 2007
People who have provided winter access into Yellowstone Park over Sylvan Pass say the Park Service has made a complete turn-around about avalanche danger since 2003.
At that time the NPS actually was soliciting snowcoach operators to carry visitors over the pass, and had two licensed snowmobile guides as well.
Now the preferred alternative in a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for winter use is to close the pass because avalanches threaten lives.
Jim Montgomery and Jon Sowerwine were partners in High Country Adventures, a snowcoach tour business that has operated since January 2004.
For financial reasons, Montgomery backed out of the partnership about a year ago after spending two costly seasons running vans converted with special, removable snow tracks.
When the two men began their partnership, the Park Service had a totally different attitude about Sylvan Pass, Montgomery says.
In fact, he said, in 2003 the partners themselves raised questions about avalanche danger, and were told by the NPS that could be mitigated.
“They were talking about major work and investment in keeping the pass open,” said Montgomery, indicating conversations he and Sowerwine had with the Yellowstone business office in 2003.
“Avalanches were an issue we were asking about, and they (NPS employees) were talking about putting a maintenance facility at the East Entrance and keeping a groomer there.”
He said the Park Service also discussed “various avalanche control devices” and even mentioned a “tunnel” that snow would pass over as possible mitigations.
Another possibility the Park Service considered at the time was erecting a “structure on the hill to keep the snow from sliding,” Montgomery said.
“They were talking about alternatives,” he added, though he said “none of it was on paper.”
But he said the Park Service at the time “really needed to have a snowcoach concessionaire (at the East Entrance) - they solicited proposals for it.”
They already had two snowmobile concessionaires (Gary Fales and Bob Coe),” Montgomery added.
This came about at the time the Park Service was adding a requirement for commercial guides in the park, he said. Montgomery, who has a degree in geology, personally took the annual guide course two times and learned about current regulations, park history, wildlife and biology.
He said he was forced by finances to leave the snowcoach business, which Sowerwine still operates.
“It was costing way too much money - it just wasn't paying,” Montgomery said.
The turn-around in NPS thinking about Sylvan Pass “just points out how fickle the Park Service really is,” Montgomery said “They seem to go by the sway of the political wind.”
“It's probably budget-driven,” he added. “I think safety is an easy scapegoat.
He said when avalanches were being triggered on Sylvan, large numbers of park employees often turned out to participate.
“People you never saw - supervisors out of Mammoth - would come to shoot the gun - it was fun,” Montgomery observed. “Everyone wanted to be involved.”
But he said it seemed every time a snowcoach trip was booked by the partners, “they closed (the pass) for avalanches,” until the cost of keeping the two company vans running was prohibitive for him.
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