Backcountry Bureaucracy: Park Service Bumbles at Yosemite's Ostrander Hut
Couloir February/March 95
by Bruce Edgerly
There's an axiom in the world of mountaineering that goes something like this: A party moves only as fast as its slowest member. When one member falls behind, the group slows down and all members may suffer. Objectives are not met, plans are changed, tensions rise, and the expedition's ultimate success can be called into question. When such situations arise, the slow one must either be helped or replaced before the expedition can move on.
Construction projects and complex manufacturing processes operate basically the same way. Good managers will ensure that nothing on the so-called "critical path" gets hung up, slowed down or otherwise stalled, bringing the rest of the operation to a screeching halt.
Unfortunately, this is exactly what appears to be happening at one of the nation's premier backcountry skiing destinations; Ostrander Ski Hut in Yosemite National Park. In this case, the laggard is the National Park Service. Ostrander is closed this season because some folks at part headquarters are dragging ass. It's now up to us to help them get off their butts and get Ostrander reopened for next season.
Former park superintendent Mike Finley closed the hut in October after determining its sanitation system was unhealthy.
It's no wonder the hut needs work. Ostrander was built by the federal government's Civilian Conservation Corps over 50 years ago. The sewage system is comprised of two toilets whose contents are periodically discharged into an open pit about 150 feet from the hut--in soil too rocky and sterile to act as an effective leach field. Few of us are particularly fond of fecal coliform, the organism park researchers claim is flourishing in nearby Ostrander Lake. But backcountry skiers are especially fond of the terrain accessed from the hut when it's open and they're increasingly skeptical that Ostrander's door will ever open again.
Why skeptical? Because Finley dropped the ball. Before he could have the hut repaired, he left his office to become the new superintendent at Yellowstone. Yosemite's new superintendent, B. J. Griffin, will be arriving at her port sometime in February. Not nearly the avid skier Finley is, Griffin just may be packing a completely different set of priorities.
Not that Finley got a whole heck of a lot done for the hut while he was in office. Ostrander didn't exactly make it to the top of the park's maintenance schedule last summer, despite the organization of a volunteer work crew by longtime hut caretaker Howard Weamer. The problem, Weamer insists, is a classic case of "bumbling government bureaucracy."
"Right now I can't tell you who is calling the shots," the frustrated caretaker said last month. "I don't know whose desk it will end up on. That's been the problem all along."
"Any project left in the hands of a bureaucracy will not only get bumbled, but expensive too," adds Don Pitts, a hut advocate and former Yosemite Park magistrate. "It's just like a supertanker. It takes 15 miles just to turn the mother around.
As an example of the agency's ineptitude, Weamer and Pitts cite a snafu about five years ago, when the Park Service spent a small fortune to purchase and fly a Swedish composting toilet up the hut, only to discover it didn't quite fit. It now lies in storage.
Park officials claim bureaucracy isn't as much to blame as a tight budget. "For me to divert money to Ostrander, I'm going to have to suspend a problem of the same or greater magnitude somewhere else in the park,"explains Kevin Cann, Yosemite's acting superintendent and normally its chief of maintenance. "We're faced with a constant triage of problems."
A committee of government, health sciences, and backcountry types concluded last spring that the best alternative for Ostrander is to build a full-fledged septic system with an above-ground leaching system to be flown in by helicopter or packed in my mules. The cost of maintaining the system, would be financed in part by an increase in hut user fees, which last year were ten dollars per night. But that arrangement still won't cover the initial installation of the system.
Regardless of the reason, one thing is obvious: the septic overhaul project at Ostrander ski hut is currently going nowhere. As with any good mountaineering team, it's up to us to ensure that the slow pokes get off their respective asses. That's why we're encouraging Couloir readers to write to Yosemite's incoming superintendent. If she arrives in Yosemite to find a stack of mail from us backcountry types, maybe B. J. will just decide to pick up the ball and run. It's worth a try. Here's the address:
B. J. Griffin
Superintendent, Yosemite National Park
Box 577 Yosemite CA 95389
209-372-0200
Sending money would be even more effective--unless, of course, you send it directly to the Park Service. (Who knows where it would end up?) Instead, send donations to the Yosemite Association, which has been managing reservations and maintenance for Ostrander hut since 1980. Address contributions to:
Steve Medley, President
Yosemite Association
P.O. Box 230 El Portal, CA 95328
209-379-2646