Cabins Closed Amid Yosemite Rockslide Fear

Dozens of popular wood and canvas tent cabins have been closed in Yosemite National Park at the start of the busy summer season because of the threat of a landslide like the one that killed a climber Sunday.

About 200 tourists were evacuated from 75 cabins Wednesday and the facilities were to remain closed indefinitely, a National Park Service spokesman said.

Park administrators closed the cabins in Curry Village after a 30-foot-long, 1-inch-wide fissure suddenly appeared Wednesday in a rock face below Glacier Point. Some visitors reported hearing a loud snap or pop when the section of rock pulled away from the wall of granite.

A slab of rock estimated at 75 feet long, 15 feet wide and three feet deep now appears poised to crash 2,000 feet to the floor of Yosemite Valley.

“The trouble is, we can say with certainty there will be a rockslide, but it could be in the next three days or the next 100 years,” said park ranger Kendell Thompson. “We think it’s much closer to the next three days.”

Thompson said the park service has mapped where rocks are likely to fall if a slide occurs. Rangers evacuated cabins anywhere near that area.

Tourists reacted calmly to news that they would have to leave their cabins. Some even dawdled by the pool or ate pizza after being told to leave, park officials said.

Some visitors relocated to the more than 500 cabins that remain open. Others were redirected to other lodging in Yosemite Valley, Thompson said.

Seventy-five cabins even closer to the bottom of the mountain had to be closed earlier in the week. Those were home to employees for the park’s concession operator.

Park employees said visitors with reservations can still be accommodated within Curry Village or other facilities this weekend, but drive-up accommodations are less likely.

The entire area under Glacier Point remains closed to climbing and hiking.

A young Colorado rock climber was killed Sunday night, and two of his friends slightly injured, when a giant section of rock broke loose from the mountainside below Glacier Point. Authorities said Peter Terbush, 22, may have saved at least one companion when he held a safety rope and allowed the young man to descend to the bottom.

Geologists said they expect rockslides in Yosemite, particularly when melted snow seeps into granite once compressed deep beneath the Earth’s surface. The water often refreezes in the rocks, cracks and then expands, helping to push apart giant slabs of granite.