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Fluoride
Trad climber
on a rock or mountain out west
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Topic Author's Original Post - May 29, 2006 - 08:16pm PT
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Another major slide occured yesterday morning. Was talking to a friend who works for the NPS last night, he was off duty and went down there to check it out when the slide happened (he got it on tape, I'm hoping to see it next weekend). Said it was one of the worst slides yet and he was talking to the engineers who were down there and they have no clue how to go about stabilizing the hillside. It keeps coming down and there's no solution they can come up with to get it to stabilize so they can start repairs. The slide earlier this month was the one that took out that million dollar stabilization fence so that thing is gone.
They're thinking the closure is going to go a minimum of three months, some of the engineers were thinking far far longer than that.
And the rumor they were going to build a tunnel is false. That's not going to happen.
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JuanDeFuca
Big Wall climber
Stoney Point
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May 29, 2006 - 10:29pm PT
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Is that the Tioga Pass Road?
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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May 29, 2006 - 10:55pm PT
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Hwy 140 goes from Merced to Yosemite Via Mariposa. This is really going to hurt employees who live in Mariposa and Midpines who commute to Yosemite every day. Now they'll have to drive around to Oakhurst>Wawona>Valley, an extra 1 and a half or more.
Peace
Karl
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Fluoride
Trad climber
on a rock or mountain out west
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Topic Author's Reply - May 29, 2006 - 10:58pm PT
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It's also causing all the traffic that would come in that way to divert onto the Southern Yos hwy (41) and the Northern Yos hwy (120). So it makes the 2 remaining entrances busier.
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Fluoride
Trad climber
on a rock or mountain out west
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Topic Author's Reply - May 29, 2006 - 11:20pm PT
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Mathers is the only one who might have been around during your time. I didn't realize it was that long ago you were there. I think most of the guys I know were there after your time there (more late 90's til now).
Did you know Spiers out of WeHo? He might have been there during your time. He's out of HQ now though.
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WBraun
climber
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May 29, 2006 - 11:40pm PT
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What's with this closing for a long time?
Push the rubble to the side, open the road to traffic.
Next time it slides, close road one day, push rubble to the side again and open road.
Keep repeating as needed.
This won't work?
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Mr_T
Trad climber
Somewhere, CA
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May 30, 2006 - 01:18am PT
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Can't push rubble - river.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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May 30, 2006 - 04:03pm PT
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Any updates on 140?? I heard a Nasty rumor about the slide ...
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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May 30, 2006 - 04:08pm PT
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It's a lot of rubble to push to the side. I saw the rubble, not the slide...You'd think the wall would have moved over enough to let the road run where the wall used to be. I feel bad for the Mariposans who work in the park.
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Blowboarder
Boulder climber
Back in the mix
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May 30, 2006 - 04:16pm PT
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Which side of El Portal is the slide, Valley or Mariposa?
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Holdplease2
Big Wall climber
Yosemite area
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May 30, 2006 - 04:32pm PT
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I saw pics of the slide over at the mariposa police station today.
The slide basically goes from the edge of the river, straight up a slope to about 600 feet high. The policeman said that the cop who took the pics said it is 300 feet wide. It buried the 'jersey barrier' that divided the road when they had one lane open.
The problems they are facing now is that additional slide material now overshoots the road (as it just goes down the giant dirt ramp) and lands in the river, with the potential for flooding if the river gets blocked.
Additionally, there is a power pole that is starting to slide which is part of the only power line for both El Portal and the Valley floor. They want to stabilize it, but it is too dangerous to get near it.
They said 6 months to a year to open the road, and material is still sliding down.
Its pretty shocking to see. I only saw the pics, about 10 of them.
-Kate.
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Karl Baba
Trad climber
Yosemite, Ca
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May 30, 2006 - 05:05pm PT
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Wow, Pretty serious stuff. Poor Mariposa.
This is one of those things that the implications don't dawn on us right away.
I wonder if they'll have to build a couple bridges and put the road on the other side of the river. That would take forever.
Peace
Karl
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Holdplease2
Big Wall climber
Yosemite area
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May 30, 2006 - 06:46pm PT
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Based on the local paper, they are looking at declaring an 'economic emergency' or something in Mariposa. The local restaurants are empty and the lack of bus trafic is seriously impacting the restaurants (where the tour busses stop to 'feed') and the convenience stores where folks stock up for their day-trips.
There is hope that they are going to get some sort of government aid for the local businesses.
Oakhurst is benefiting, to say the least. There are a lot of us who are making an effort to go to Mariposa for dinner and to pick up groceries just to try to help the economy there. However, with such high gas prices, this probably won't be an option for a lot of folks.
The cop dude said that traffic was backed up past fish camp at the Oakhurst entrance last weekend.
-Kate.
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pyro
Trad climber
Ventura
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May 30, 2006 - 06:48pm PT
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hey Dave! your right, but people have to visit the valley.
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Melissa
Gym climber
berkeley, ca
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May 30, 2006 - 06:59pm PT
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I've been missing stopping at the Bug and was wondering how bad they're hurting without Yosemite access.
It's nice that you're taking on the effort/expense to support the folks in Mariposa, Kate.
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Inner City
Trad climber
East Bay
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May 30, 2006 - 07:53pm PT
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Can some one say where on 140 the slide happened?
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Fluoride
Trad climber
on a rock or mountain out west
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Topic Author's Reply - May 30, 2006 - 07:57pm PT
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"The cop dude said that traffic was backed up past fish camp at the Oakhurst entrance last weekend.
-Kate."
Heard the same kind of thing on the 120 entrance too. A friend left Strawberry a few hours ahead of us and around 3pm she said it took her 45 minutes to get through the gate, traffic was backed up to practically the Evergreen/Hardin area to get into the park.
Waited out the worst of the storm in Evergreen and came in later when it was still stormy and there were only about 10 cars ahead of us and tons of traffic fleeing the park instead (at least the storm got rid of some of the crowds). But yeah, this 140 closure is definitely impacting the other entrances.
This is what we drove in during...full on graupel blasting. Gotta love Memorial Day weekend weather:
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Blowboarder
Boulder climber
Back in the mix
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May 30, 2006 - 08:04pm PT
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I heard, second hand, that it was just downriver from Savage's trading post.
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k-man
Gym climber
SCruz
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May 30, 2006 - 08:35pm PT
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Right, downriver from the Trading Post (junction of S. Fork of Merced w/ Merced).
The _rumor_ I heard told the story of two power "poles." Also the possibility of the slide damming the river. With that, they might enduce the slide in a "controlled" manner. This would mean cutting the power (El Portal, Yosemite Valley, YoWest, Foresta) for a week minimum. Just a rumor though.
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Fluoride
Trad climber
on a rock or mountain out west
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Topic Author's Reply - May 30, 2006 - 08:48pm PT
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"The _rumor_ I heard told the story of two power "poles." Also the possibility of the slide damming the river."
k-man, that last part isn't rumor but is a definite possibility according to the guy I was talking to who's been watching the situation. He said there's so much rock/dirt up there that's still unstable and likely to come down that more falls could eventually damn up the Merced River there. He said it was more volume than what came down in that La Conchita landslide down in SoCal in winter '05. That says a lot.
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