Sunrise Snow Shoveling Spectacular

Attention all Sunrise VIPs, Meadow Rovers, and snowball fight enthusiasts:

As you may know we are going to be remodeling the Sunrise Visitor's Center this summer and we need to get the contractor up there ASAP! We are looking for volunteers to shovel the two visitor center entryways and ranger station door mid-week once our crews clear the Sunrise parking lot and roads.

Don't miss your chance to be one of the first skiiers or snowshoers to "check snow conditions" at Sunrise afterwards.

Anyone interested should contact Patti Wold at 360 569-2211 ext. 3327 or patti_wold@nps.gov

Volunteers Needed to Shovel Out Sunrise

Here's a great opportunity for a volunteer group, with very short notice! As we've done for the past two years, we'd like to recruit about two dozen people to help us shovel out utilities and historic structures at Sunrise in preparation for spring opening. These facilities can't safely be cleared of snow by mechanical equipment, so volunteer assistance is extremely helpful.

Due to the late notice, this year we're specifically looking for an organized group who can show up together to complete the project. Plan to make a day of it, bring good waterproof footwear, water, and lunches, and we'll provide the shovels and provide you with access to Sunrise weeks before the general public arrives!

We're looking for groups to help any time between now and June 27. Let us know when you can come, and we'll try to arrange our schedules to accommodate you. To volunteer, contact Kevin Bacher or Nick Abel at 360-569-2211 ext. 3385, and we'll connect you with facilities manager Dale Harvard.

More photos from Sunrise shoveling

Jill Baum contributed these photos from the snow shoveling day at Sunrise on June 21--part of the efforts that allowed us to reopen today!

Sunrise snow shoveling photos

Jack Leicester, who has served as a volunteer patrol ranger at Sunrise for about 15 years, sent us these pictures of the crew that shoveled snow there on Saturday the 21st. For those of you who participated, he was very impressed! "The volunteers did a great job at Sunrise," he says. "They worked very hard." Given the amount they accomplished in an amazingly short time, I have no doubt that's true!

Want a sneak preview of Sunrise?

We just got a call from Dale Harvard in our maintenance division. He's looking for help getting the facilities shoveled out at Sunrise, in preparation for a late opening due to the snow. We just opened administrative access today, and our rangers are working feverishly to get utilities de-winterized and turned on in preparation for opening to the public on July 3rd. There's an amazing amount of snow still on the ground this year. We have heavy equipment on the job, of course, but gaining access to the bathrooms, the pathway into the visitor center, and the fire hydrants, and exposing the historic rock walls without knocking them apart with our snow machines, requires hand shoveling to do right.

Last year, a class from Evergreen State College helped us dig out (photo above by Mount Rainier Recovery Corps member Rachel Fair). This year, we'd like to open it to anyone interested in helping. This is your opportunity to get up to the highest point in the park accessible by road a full two weeks earlier than anyone else. If the weather next weekend is as beautiful as it is today, it'll be spectacular. I'll do everything in my power to ensure that's the case. (Lest anyone misunderstand, it's not within my power! But as one of our volunteers likes to say, "there's no such thing as bad weather, just bad gear." Right!)

Go to our listing on Eventbrite for all the details and to sign up:

Those amazing geocachers

WOW! I just checked out the page for the Washington Geocachers event at Cougar Rock Campground yesterday, for National Trails Day. I am absolutely floored by the amount of work those guys accomplished! For comparison, here is what the campground amphitheater looked like when I stopped by at noon:



Now here's what it looked like at the end of the day (I've also UPDATED the image above with a photo from the exact same location):

Check out all of their photos here.

I had seriously thought maybe we wouldn't be able to do evening programs in the campground until September. It's looking a lot more optimistic now. One member of the group estimated they must have moved 50 tons of snow! I especially like this comment by TotemLake:

I'm making the rare move to count this as an ATTENDED WITH PRIDE to have worked as hard with a great bunch of people in the Geocaching community and with a very impressively energetic organization such as the SCA.

The members promise to post more photos and videos later, which I will link to here, so stay tuned. THANK YOU, Washington Geocachers!!