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Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005

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avatar Tioga Road Plowing 2005
April 17, 2005 10:51AM
Plowing has started on Tioga Road.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing
April 18, 2005 01:20PM
<HTML>Plowing on Saturday (4/16) ended 2.5 miles file Crane Flat. Snow was very dense and averaged about 9 feet deep.</HTML>

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing
April 19, 2005 03:31PM
<HTML>Made it to 3.2 miles from Crane Flat on Monday, April 18. Snow is 11 feet deep.</HTML>

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing
April 22, 2005 11:06PM
<HTML>For 4/21/05 plowed a half mile ending at 4.8 miles from Crane Flat with snow depth of 11 feet.

Glacier Point has been plowed to 0.9 miles from Badger Pass with a snow depth of 8 feet.</HTML>

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
April 25, 2005 11:38AM
Made it to 6.8 miles from Crane Flat on Saturday. Still about 9 to 10 feet of snow.



Post Edited (04-26-05 16:29)
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
April 26, 2005 04:31PM
Tioga Road was plow only 0.3 miles on Monday ending at 7.1 miles from Crane Flat. Snow depth was 8 feet.

The Glacier Point Road plowing has reach 1.4 miles from Badger Pass with snow running 10 feet deep.

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nrjask
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
April 28, 2005 01:07PM
When do you expect glacier point road to open? I was planning a trip around May 20 or so. Is there any chance it will open by then?
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
April 28, 2005 02:16PM
nrjask wrote:

> When do you expect glacier point road to open? I was planning
> a trip around May 20 or so. Is there any chance it will open
> by then?

I'd make other plans. The snow is very dense and I suspect they'll be having to make a lot of road repairs before opening it up.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
April 27, 2005 12:13PM
No progress for April 26th due to avalanche concerns.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
April 28, 2005 11:06AM
4/27/05: Plowed 0.4 miles ending at 7.5 miles from Crane Flat.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
April 29, 2005 11:04AM
On 4/28/06 plowed 1.3 miles to 8.8 miles from Crane Flat. The last system that came through California added another 6 inches to the snow pack.

Plowing on the Glacier Point Road has reached 2.5 miles out from Badger Pass.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 02, 2005 05:10PM
No plowing was done on April 30th due to avalanche concerns. Plowing on April 29th ended at 10.3 miles from Crane Flat with a snow depth of 8.5 feet.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 03, 2005 10:08AM
May 2nd: 10.3 miles to 10.6 miles from Crane Flat with snow running 9 feet deep.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 04, 2005 02:09PM
The Tioga Road plowing got to 11.9 miles from Crane Flat on May 3rd. Snow was 12 feet deep.

On May 2nd Glacier Point Road plowing reached 2.7 miles from Badger Pass with 5 feet of snow. No plowing was done on May 3rd due to equipment problems.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 05, 2005 02:39PM
May 4th: plowed 0.2 miles to 12.1 miles from Crane Flat. Snow was 12 feet deep with more falling today.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 06, 2005 12:30PM
Avalanche danger prevented Tioga Road progress on May 5th. Glacier Point Road made it to 3.4 miles from Badger Pass.

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The Other Tom
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 06, 2005 07:38PM
Thanks for posting these every day. I like to keep up with things in Yosemite.
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 09, 2005 12:39PM
For May 7th:

Tioga Road made it to 12.6 miles from Crane Flat with 13 feet of snow.

Glacier Point Road plowed to 5.0 miles from Badger Pass with 6 feet of snow.

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Michel_France
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 09, 2005 12:43PM
Hello,

When do you expect Tioga pass opening ?
I was planning to come from Las Vegas by Tioga pass on May 24th.

It seems that i won't open early this year, right ?

Michel
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 09, 2005 01:48PM
If I had to guess, I'd say around mid June. There's not much hope for the pass opening in time for your trip. Not only is the snow pack very heavy this year but May has been unusually cold.

You can get an idea of the state of the snow pack from the daily snow senor readings:

http://cdec.water.ca.gov/snow/current/snow/pillowplots/TuolumneMerced.html
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Michel_France
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 09, 2005 11:19PM
Thank you very much.
I will go by Fresno then... longer way, and not as beautiful as Tioga road..

Regards
Michel
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 10, 2005 12:03AM
Michel_France wrote:

> Thank you very much.
> I will go by Fresno then... longer way, and not as beautiful as
> Tioga road..

Definately not as beautiful winking smiley Try to avoid rush hour traffic too; many people working in Fresno are now commuting on highway 41 to and from the Oakhurst area.

BTW, the last good place to buy gas is on highway 49 in Oakhurst at the Vons station.
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Michel_France
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 11, 2005 02:32AM
Thank you for the extra-info..

I am now wondering about gas stations for the rest of my journey, which is supposed to be in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, CA..

Do you know any web site with maps including gas stations ?

Thank you again..
Michel
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nrjask
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 11, 2005 09:27AM
Any date you could give when you think glacier point road might be opening? I'm just looking for a ballpark figure. It seems like you guys are making pretty good progress recently.
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avatar Gas Price Sites
May 11, 2005 01:54PM
Google shows a few:

http://www.gasbuddy.com/
http://www.gaspricewatch.com/
http://www.losangelesgasprices.com/

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 10, 2005 07:37PM
Tioga Road plowing made it to 12.9 miles from Crane Flat Gate on May 9th with 15 feet of snow.

Glacier Point Road is out to 6.4 miles from Badger Pass.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 11, 2005 11:23AM
Tioga Road plowing for May 10th ended at 13.3 miles from Crane Flat with 10 feet of snow.

Glacier Point plowing made it to 7.4 miles from Badger Pass With 6 feet of snow.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005 - East Side
May 11, 2005 07:16PM
Caltrans has been plowing highway 120 from the Lee Vining side. They have reached Ellery Lake.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 12, 2005 10:07AM
Tioga Road Plowing reached 13.7 miles from the Crane Flat Gate on May 11th with 11 feet of snow. This puts them near White Wolf.

Glacier Point Road ended at 8.4 miles from Badger Pass with 6 feet of snow. This leaves a little over 2 miles to go but it includes the switch backs.

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chiggarYosemite
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 12, 2005 04:55PM
So does this mean, glacier pt road will be open next week?
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 12, 2005 05:35PM
chiggarYosemite wrote:

> So does this mean, glacier pt road will be open next week?

No, it'll only have one lane plowed through and there'll be repairs that need to be made before it is opened.

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Creep
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 14, 2005 02:26PM
Hi,

great site. I'm happy I've found it after a long google search.

Is there any similar site for 108 and Sonora pass? Or is there any chance to get from Groveland to Lee Vining on May 31st?
Never thought this would be such a tough winter when I booked the hotel there.

Regards from Germany!
Rene
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 14, 2005 04:50PM
Creep wrote:

> Is there any similar site for 108 and Sonora pass? Or is there
> any chance to get from Groveland to Lee Vining on May 31st?
> Never thought this would be such a tough winter when I booked
> the hotel there.

There's a chance that Caltrans will have Sonora Pass open by then. You can check the status at http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/roadinfo/sr108 to see if it's open.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 13, 2005 02:01PM
Tioga Road plowing reached the White Wolf Junction, 14 miles from Crane Flat, on May 12th with snow running 12 feet deep.

Glacier Point Road plowing reach 9.4 miles from Badger Pass with 6 feet of snow.

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koloaman
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 14, 2005 12:44PM
Hi Rick,

I found this site a mont ago when I started planning a family vacation for early June. The time draws near and I must ask: best guess, will the Pass be open by June 1? Or June7?

Thanks for all the info you do provide; it's very helpful.
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 14, 2005 04:52PM
koloaman wrote:

> I found this site a mont ago when I started planning a family
> vacation for early June. The time draws near and I must ask:
> best guess, will the Pass be open by June 1? Or June7?

I don't think it'll be open by then. But I could always be surprised.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 14, 2005 05:00PM
On May 13th plowed from White Wolf to 14.5 miles from Crane Flat with snow over 15 feet deep and getting deeper.

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shazzyd
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 16, 2005 06:11AM
Hi I know you are probably fed up with questions regarding the opening of tioga road but my husband and I have planned our honeymoon in california and were planning on travelling from Lee vining to Yosemite valley on 18th June! We are coming all the way from the UK so may need to re-arrange our trip. Is there any chance the tioga road will be open by 18th June?




shazzyd
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smitty825
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 16, 2005 03:19PM
There is certainly a chance that the road could be open on June 18, but I would say it is unlikely. On the previous years that we've received this much snowfall, the Tioga Pass has tended to open around June 30/July 1. (See 1982-1983; 1997-1998)
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Creep
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 17, 2005 10:28AM
A phone call to our hotel at Lee Vining gave some hope: They seem to be trying to open Sonora pass for Memorial Day Weekend. So take your time for Tioga!
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davidh
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 16, 2005 10:53AM
Rick, thanks for updates. I'm curious....does CalTran (coming from the east) plow to a specific destination or do they keep going until they meet the crew coming from Crane Flats?
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sierravisions
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 16, 2005 08:47PM
CalTrans only plows to the top of Tioga Pass from the east side. It then becomes a political matter if they will get to help the NPS or not. Some years they are alowed to plow into the park and meet up with the crews from the west, other years they aren't. There have even been years when the Town of Mammoth Lakes helps the NPS with plowing. Who know what will happen this year.

As for an opening date, CalTrans here in the Eastern Sierra is predicting early July around the 4th.

The crews working on the east side are having a lot of problems with avalanches and rock fall. There are many big boulders on the road that will have to be blasted to get them off the road and then the road will have to be repaired afterward.

It's hard work for these guys and gals trying to clear these passes for us. It can also be very dangerous work too. Personaly I'll be happy when the pass opens, but I also want it to be cleared safely and they can take as long as they want to do it safely.

Steven




SierraVisions.com
http://www.sierravisions.com
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 16, 2005 12:38PM
Plowing has reached 15.1 miles from the Crane Flat gate. Snow is running 16 feet deep.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 18, 2005 11:34PM
May 17th: 15.6 miles from Crane Flat with 15 feet of snow.

I don't have a good milage reference but I don't think they've made it to Yosemite Creek yet.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 20, 2005 09:43AM
May 18th: 16.6 miles from Crane Flat with 8 feet of snow. Past McSwain Summit and into a sun exposed area.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 23, 2005 12:27PM
May 21: 22.2 from Crane Flat with 6 feet of snow.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 24, 2005 01:25PM
May 23: 22.5 miles from Crane Flat gate with 8 feet of snow.

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davidh
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 25, 2005 07:17AM
Rick, how is the Mono County crew faring on the east side? Also, I've noticed that the temps have really warmed up and accelerated the snow melt. I would imagine this is good in the long-term for clearing the roads, but doesn't it also accelerate the avalanche dangers?
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 25, 2005 11:30AM
davidh wrote:

> Rick, how is the Mono County crew faring on the east side?

I haven't heard anything new lately. There are some pictures taken last week at monolake.org:

http://www.monolake.org/live/pow.htm

I did hear that there's a big rock fall near the pass and it can't be blasted yet because of the avalanche danger.

> Also, I've noticed that the temps have really warmed up and
> accelerated the snow melt. I would imagine this is good in the
> long-term for clearing the roads, but doesn't it also
> accelerate the avalanche dangers?

Not only does it influence the avalanche danger but the increased runoff can cause problems.

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sierravisions
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 25, 2005 12:45PM
Thanks to the temp increase, the streams in the Eastern Sierra are running very high now. There have been flood warnings up in northern Mono Co. on the Walker River for about a week now. The Owens River is running totaly full in the Owens Valley and has went over the banks in places.
I haven't heard any news either on how the plowing is going from the east side of Tioga.
Steven




SierraVisions.com
http://www.sierravisions.com
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 25, 2005 03:29PM
May 24th: 25 miles from Crane Flat with 4 feet of snow.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 26, 2005 11:59AM
May 25th: 25.8 miles from Crane Flat with 7 feet of snow.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 27, 2005 11:23AM
May 26th: 26.6 miles from Crane Flat with 5 feet of snow. The plowing has reached the May Lake intersection.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
May 29, 2005 08:31AM
May 27th: No plowing progress due to rock slide and road repairs.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 01, 2005 10:40AM
May 31st: Plowed from the May Lake junction to Olmsted Point. The next couple of days will be spent dealing with the avalanche zone that's just past Olmsted.

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davidh
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 02, 2005 05:29PM
The Yosemite Tioga update site now shows that the east section to Tuolumne Meadows has been plowed... I guess this is the Mono County crews?
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 02, 2005 05:51PM
davidh wrote:

> The Yosemite Tioga update site now shows that the east section
> to Tuolumne Meadows has been plowed... I guess this is the Mono
> County crews?

Yes, that'd be the Caltrans crew. Glad to finally hear something.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 04, 2005 10:11AM
Interesting article on the plowing:

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/10620488p-11407007c.html

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BYoung
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 17, 2005 09:30AM
Any updates? Any new predictions on open dates?




Brian
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 17, 2005 10:52AM
The only predition is that they think it'll be open by the July 4th weekend. Avalanche danger is the major factor.

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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 18, 2005 01:11AM
FYI... Tioga Road is currently PARTIALLY OPEN from Crane Flat to Yosemite Creek, which means there are a number of nice trailheads accessible from the opened portion of Tioga Road for day hikes. (Overnight parking is still NOT PERMITTED on any portion of Tioga Road.)




Leave No Trace
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 18, 2005 02:38PM
I missed it by one day:



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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 21, 2005 01:02PM
They have finally started to allow adminstrative traffic on Tioga Road as of today. A full opening is getting closer.

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The Other Tom
Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 21, 2005 06:21PM
Looks like Tioga Road will be open Friday. Thanks for all the updates, eek.
http://www.nps.gov/yose/now/tioga.htm
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avatar Re: Tioga Road Plowing 2005
June 21, 2005 10:01PM
The Other Tom wrote:

> Looks like Tioga Road will be open Friday.

Finally winking smiley

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