LA Times article (photos & video) on opening up Tioga Road

Blasting winter away at Yosemite
Yosemite National Park's avalanche control team has a particularly big job this year, blowing up mountains of snow along Tioga Road to clear the way for summer tourists.

By Mike Anton, Los Angeles Times

June 9, 2011
Reporting from Yosemite National Park -- It's nearly summer, and swarms of cars, buses and RVs breeze through Yosemite Valley as if on conveyor belts of asphalt. But up here at 8,400 feet, along the snowbound solitude of Tioga Road, winter is still in control.

Three members of a National Park Service avalanche control team move out from their camp near Olmsted Point. They are here to bend nature's timetable and help clear the highest automobile route across the Sierra.

From a distance, they are ephemeral figures dwarfed by the eternal landscape — a steep, treeless mountainside loaded with tons of ice and snow just waiting for a trigger.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tioga-road-20110609,0,6656961.story

Now I know what that shipping container at Olmsted is for.

Thanks for the link. The video there is really neat:
http://framework.latimes.com/2011/06/08/tioga-road-video/

That is a pretty cool video, thanks

Thanks for the link. Nice article.

Awesome! What a fun job.

People wanting to ask "Why isn't the road open??" should watch the video first!

Great video. Ok, so tell me, how is blasting the charcoal to hell any more efficient than using some shovels and just scattering it by hand? Did you hear the guy? "I don't really know who came up with the idea to use explosives..." LOL I think some guys were bored, or tired and who doesn't like blowing $hit up!?

They used to just do fly bys and drop Pumice onto the Avalance areas.
Problem was all that Pumice got onto the road and caused other complaints.

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Hotrod still makes a valid point. Why explosives? Just dump each bag into one of those large aluminum coal/snow shovels and fling away. I'm retiring next week and could use some easy money selling shovels. Makes me wonder if Delaware North has a secret concession on the side selling explosives to NPS.

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hotrod4x5
Great video. Ok, so tell me, how is blasting the charcoal to hell any more efficient than using some shovels and just scattering it by hand? Did you hear the guy? "I don't really know who came up with the idea to use explosives..." LOL I think some guys were bored, or tired and who doesn't like blowing $hit up!?

Funny, I am sure everyone thinks the same thing. Seems like you could get a snow blower or something that would do it quicker and better. I guess the explosives are more fun for the guys. Of course, it is all fun until somebody blows an eye out.

I presume explosives because they don't want to be on the slope when the ice starts to melt rapidly due to the charcoal.

Also, ski resorts have always used explosives to set off avalanches right away to get the ski area ready before the skiers arrive for the day. At a number of ski resorts, they use mortars to fire the charge up into the slopes.