Yosemite rockslide danger forces closures

updated 2:43 p.m. ET Nov. 21, 2008

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK, Calif. - A third of the units at a popular lodging complex at Yosemite National Park will be permanently closed because an unstable cliff has created the potential for deadly rockslides, the National Park Service said Friday.

The agency said 233 cabins will close permanently, or about one-third of the lodging units available at Curry Village to park visitors. About half of the 618 cabins have been off-limits since a rockfall on the historic complex Oct. 8.

"The NPS can no longer treat each rockfall as an isolated incident," the park service said in a statement Friday. "Instead, we must look at the area comprehensively and recognize that geologic processes that have shaped Yosemite Valley since the last glaciers receded will continue to result in rockfall."

The closure will affect 157,500 overnight guests per year, said Scott Gediman, a parks spokesman. Officials will remove the cabins, fence off the area and install educational exhibits explaining why the area was closed and the history of rockfalls.

"I'm glad nobody else had to die," said attorney Dugan Barr, who is suing Yosemite for wrongful death on behalf of the family of rock climber Peter Terbush.

Terbush was killed in 1999 in a rockfall behind Curry Village. Barr has been frustrated that Yosemite does not warn Curry Village visitors of potential rockfall danger.

"If they'd just put up a sign on a bulletin board there, put up a piece of paper that says we've had rockfalls of these sizes on these dates, then they can let people make up their own minds about whether they want to go up there."

Earlier reluctance
Despite two deaths and an increase in the frequency and severity of the rockfalls since 1996, park officials had been reluctant act earlier.

For a decade, the National Park Service has known that the 3,000-foot granite cliff hanging over the village is susceptible to colossal rockslides like one last month that crushed cabins and sent schoolchildren running for their lives.

An Associated Press examination of records found that rock falls in and around Curry Village have been happening more frequently in the past several years, with two people killed and about two dozen injured since 1996.

And yet, the park service repeatedly rebuilt and repaired the lodgings rather than bar the public or post warnings at the village, which has been around for more than a century.

"To me, that's irresponsible," said Deanna Maschmeyer of Monterey, who ran with her two children from their cabin as the equivalent of 570 dump trucks of rock shook the ground Oct. 8. "Now that I've lived through it, I can't believe it's safe. I will not stay there again."

Falling rocks at one of America's most popular parks have led to at least one lawsuit and scientific debate over whether the increasing danger is attributable to construction in the park.

Park officials say that over the years, they have carefully weighed the safety of visitors against public demand for lodging amid one of the world's most spectacular natural wonders.

"It's not inaction on our part over the past 10 years," Gediman, the park's public affairs officer, said before Friday's move. "It's just us saying we're going to do the scientific studies and make decisions based upon that."

Families gather below Glacier Point
Curry Village, with 618 cabins, accounts for almost two-thirds of the lodging at Yosemite. It is also the most family-friendly lodging in the park, consisting of cabins, stores and restaurants run by an outside company. And it is in Yosemite Valley, beneath the unstable granite of Glacier Point.

The village has experienced more rockfalls during the past decade than any other place in the one-by-seven-mile valley. U.S. Geological Survey and park records list as many as 46 since 1996 — four times the number during the previous 139 years.

Since 1999, 20 of the structures at Curry Village have been directly hit by boulders and many more have been damaged by flying rocks.

Since 1857, at least 535 rockfalls in Yosemite Valley have killed 14 people and injured 62, more than at any other national park. Yosemite Valley is easily the most collapse-prone place in a park that receives over 3 million visitors a year.

Officials say that visitors assume some risk when they visit national parks, and that the parks are not legally required to post warnings about hazards in wild areas.

"By definition Yosemite National Park is a wild place and these natural processes occur and are going to continue," Gediman said. "By us not putting signs right there, we're not trying to hide the fact that there has been rockfall in the area."

He said if officials put up warning signs about every hazard, the park would be covered with them.

MORE FROM ENVIRONMENT

Environment Section Front

Climate talks open with pressure on U.S. EPA: Greenhouse gases are harmful Wolf recovery at crossroads in Southwest Timber program becomes vast entitlement Promises, not treaty, likely at climate summit Mass climate rally in London streets NBC World Blog: Copenhagen preview Obama shifts date of climate summit visit Smuggled kangaroos freed; man arrested South Pole trekkers on the hot, cold grind Environment Section Front   Add Environment headlines to your news reader: