A seven-month overhaul of Hurricane Ridge Road in Olympic National Park starts Monday, the park’s acting superintendent Sue McGill said this morning.

The $12 million project will resurface the road, the main parking lot and the pullouts along the road. The road, built in the 1950s, was last resurfaced in 1979. Three sections of the road severely damaged during a December storm will also be repaired.

The project is a partnership between the park service, the Federal Highway Administration and Lakeside Industries, a Washington contractor.

Motorists should expect delays of up to 20 minutes during the summer months, with delays of up to 30 minutes in the spring and fall. Flaggers and pilot cars will guide motorists through the active construction areas and temporary traffic signs and signals will be installed for weekend and evening travel.

Cyclists will not be allowed on the road until construction is complete. “The combination of heavy construction equipment, unpaved roadway and the need to employ pilot cars poses too many risks to allow bicycles this summer,” McGill said.

While the project starts Monday, driving delays won't start until May.

“Over 350,000 people visit Hurricane Ridge each year and while we recognize the inconvenience that road construction can pose, we are eager to get this project underway and to provide a safer, more enjoyable roadway for visitors,” McGill said in a statement released by the park. “And we’re very pleased to announce that the construction will occur during only one summer season, rather than two as originally planned.”

Click below for a tenative work schedule.

=> Read more!

There aren’t many views more spectacular than a look inside Mount St. Helens from the crater rim.
So climbing all the way to the summit this spring can be frustrating.
Thanks to a deeper than normal snowpack, there will be cornices on the rim blocking the view into the crater well into the spring.
Should you climb St. Helens in the next few months the temptation will be to scurry out on to one of these cornices for a peak at the smoldering lava dome.
The Gifford Pinchot National Forest officials issued a reminder to not do this earlier this week.
Why not? Just ask John Slemp, a snowmobiler from Oregon. He climbed out on a cornice to look in the crater on Saturday. When the cornice collapsed he fell into the crater. Slemp, still wearing his helmet, survived.
Slemp has not returned calls from The News Tribune this week.
So how do you get a view of the crater if the cornices are in the way?
When you get to the crater rim make sure you are standing on solid ground then work your way around the rim.
I climbed St. Helens last June only to have my view blocked by cornices. I only had to walk about 200 yards along the rim before I found a place where I could see inside the crater.
When I climbed to the rim in 2004, I saw men taking turns crawling out onto a cornice for a view. Check out the picture below taken by News Tribune photographer Drew Perine. As you can see these men had the foresight to rope up for safety, but climbing rangers don’t even encourage this approach.
Stories like Slemp’s rarely have a happy ending.
In 2003 a climber’s dog ventured out on to a cornice. The dog fell more than a 1,000 feet to its death.

Jeff Ursino of Seattle wears a safety harness tethered to a fellow climber so he can peer over a snow cornice into the crater below. (Photo by Drew Perine, The News Tribune)

Got this picture via e-mail today from avid cyclist Bob Myrick. This is a family that found an innovative way to get everybody out to enjoy the sunshine on the Foothills Trail. Looks like the photo was originally taken by Earl and Glory Mikkelson.